Dark Angel
by Kgmck177
Summary: Pokemorphs... half human, half pokemon. The best of both species but shunned by all. Angel is one such experiment; her dream? To show the world that pokemorphs aren't monsters like people think they are. Rated M for blood, gore and sex in later chapters
1. Chapter 1: Breakout!

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon.**

_**To the readers of my story:**_

_**Thanks for coming and I hope you all enjoy this neverending fic I've thought up (That's right ! No THE END whatsoever!). The idea for using PokeMorphs came from a writer nicknamed Ryu the Dragon Demon and his fic "Rogue Genetics". It's a brilliant fic by the way and really long too. So anyway just read, relax, get a pizza and review at the end of the chapter. 3 and I'll be so happy I'll write the next one.

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**Chapter 1: Breakout!**

In a remote mountain region in the middle of the Hoenn region there was a secret base deep under the earth. It was here that Team Rocket did the most horrific and inhuman things. Genetic Manipulation was a dangerous and grueling thing but now it was a time for celebration. Team Rocket had finally created an experiment that had survived the monstrous surgeries and operations. Project: Dark Angel was a success and immediately the top scientists of Team Rocket crowded round the tube that held their greatest achievement to take notes.

Inside the tube, filled with a transulcent green liquid, was a girl. No more than 14 years of age with light blue, almost white, hair that came down to her shoulders in three spikes. She would have seemed normal had it not been for the pair of wings bursting out of her back. The girl was completely naked but the wings were folded around her saving some decency. She had an almost bird-like face, her eyebrows thin and long, her nose short and straight, and thin pale lips. The label at the front of the tube read:

_Alias: Angel_

_Age:14_

_Height: 6" 4'_

_Weight:10st 5oz_

_Place of Birth???_

_Shedule: None at present_

One scientist at the back of the group looked at the teenager sadly and wished he could be somewhere else. He was the second best scientist in Team Rocket and had spent the last four years of his life developing the technology that kept this girl contained, but his heart was not into taking children off the streets and turning them into freaks. Suddenly the man's pager went off and he hurried to the door, not wanting to be in the room. As he was about to leave he turned to face the tube and his face clenched in determination as he thought of his plan. He would no longer sit idly by while innocent people suffered by his hands. He sighed to himself and walked away.

_'Pain... So much pain...'_

_'Huh? Where am I? Why can't I see?'_

_'Oh god I feel strange... Did I get in another fight?'_

_'Wait... Who am I? Why am I here? Where is here?'_

Thoughts like this continued to haunt the girl's mind as she slept in the tube containing her. Even though she didn't know it the time was nearing midnight and most people in the base were asleep. However the door to the lab opened and a man in a white coat walked in with a purposeful stride yet he moved quietly. The girl in the tube became aware of the presence but did not awaken from her sleep incase it was another scientist coming to take notes.. The scientist went to a control panel with a lever and pulled it down. The liquid in the tube was sucked out and the glass cylinder rose away leaving the girl to crumple to the floor. The scientist ran over to her as she stirred on the ground.

"It's okay little one. I'm here to help," the man said kindly and quietly as he knelt next to her.

"Where am I? Who am I? Why am I not wearing anything?" the girl asked.

"You are in an evil place and I'm here to help you get out. We don't know you're real name but everyone calls you Angel and as for the lack of clothing..." the man said.

He then took off his white coat, tore two holes in it for her wings and put it on Angel. Angel smiled up at the man in thanks and shakily stood up. She sneezed and small crystal particles erupted from her nose, glittering in the darkened room. The man felt a stab of pity. This girl didn't deserve this and he was saddened when she looked at him with her rose coloured eyes. At least the scientists had wiped her memory so that she was peaceful when she was consious. He reached out and gently laid his hand on her left wing. Angel followed his gaze and spotted her extra appendages. She looked at them in confusion and they flapped lifting her about 3 feet into the air. The man pulled her down.

"My name is Paul and we have to leave here shortly. This place is a pit of evil run by a group called Team Rocket who use pokemon for evil deeds. They subjected you to experiments that left you with about 43 pokemon DNA though it appear the DNA came from a discoloured pokemon judging from the paler hair," Paul said quickly. "They'll probably kill me for releasing you but I don't want you to be in anymore pain because of my work. Please forgive me."

Angel felt faint but stayed standing thanks to Paul. Tears slowly trickled from her eyes as she began to understand the seriousness of the situation but Paul wiped them away and hugged her. He gently stroked her hair and whispered comfort to her. After a minute they heard footsteps and Paul quickly led Angel through a second door into a small cupboard-like room. Angel looked up and saw that it was actually a tall shaft with metal rungs set in the wall.

"This is an emergency escape route incase an experiment gets loose. It leads to the surface and just a mile south is the town of Lavaridge. If you can you must fly up and go past Lavaridge to the next town called Oldale. You must keep the fact that you are a Pokemorph a complete secret or people will fear and reject you. Understand?" Paul said rapidly.

Angel nodded and one last tear escaped her eye as she beat her wings and shot up the chute to freedom. Paul smiled to himself and turned around.

"Going for a walk?" came a cold voice.

As Angel neared the top of the chute she heard a loud bang and she flew even faster, fresh tears streaming down her face. She knew that she would never see Paul again but she pressed on and burst into the open night near the top of Mt Chimney. She stopped in midair to get a breather. As Angel didn't know the way to go she stuck her hands in her pockets in frustration and felt something in the left pocket. She pulled out a small compass and a crumpled bit of paper. The compass had a wrist strap so she fastened it on and unfurled the paper. It was a message from Paul! It read,

_Dear Angel, I am sorry I could not leave with you but there was no time. You are now a fugitive from Team Rocket and must keep on the move so that they can't find you. There was a tracker in your wing but I removed it so they don't know where you are. I suggest you get to Oldale and lie low for a year or so. I left my life savings in the other pocket for your use. Please be safe, Paul xxx._

Angel reached into the other pocket and sure enough there was a large wad of notes held with a rubber band. Angel put it back in the pocket and silently prayed for the man who had given so much for her yet asked for nothing in return. She turned the paper over and saw a picture of Paul smiling with his signature on the corner. Angel smiled sadly to herself and jumped when a shot rang out. She looked down and saw a single man on the mountainside with a gun in his hands. He fired again and Angel streaked away as fast as she could. Suddenly there was excruciating pain as her wing was hit and she fell to the ground with a thud. The man that had fired ran down to her and pinned her down.

"Hey there half-breed. Think you were gonna escape so easily?" the man sneered.

Angel felt her anger rising.

"Even that s.o.b of a dork couldn't help you! Ha, ha, ha!" the guy laughed.

Angel snapped.

A harsh wind blew through the air and Angel rose off the ground out of the man's grasp glowing blue. There was a flash of blue light that blinded the guy but then the Rocket pulled his gun up and aimed at the girl. But there wasn't one. Instead a large Articuno was in her place, it's wings making the air chill with each flap. It took two precious seconds for the Rocket to realize what had happened but by then it was too late. Angel dived at the unfortunate Rocket and tore a huge gash on his chest with her talons. The Rocket fell to the ground and didn't get back up. A flash of blue light washed through the air and Angel was back to her human self again. With a sob she turned in the air and flew as fast as she could to her next destination hoping that it was safe. She carefully put Paul's picture back into her pocket as she flew and vowed to keep it with her for as long as she lived.

_One year later..._

Angel Paterson walked slowly home after a hard day's work at the nearby pokemon center. It had been a year since her escape from Mt Chimney and she was now living with the Patersons who, thinking she was an orphan, took her in with open arms. They fed and clothed her and in return she helped their 12 year old son train with his pokemon. The kid's name with Jake and he was a loving and kind person to everyone. he especially loved his pokemon and Angel now considered him to be a brother. Angel sighed to herself as she walked up the garden path to the house. She glanced in the living room and saw her foster parents watching tv looking grim. Angel walked in and sat down being careful to make sure her coat still hid her wings. It had been a hard year for Angel to keep her condition a secret but she had managed it well and not a single person was suspicious. Although she did have the bird tendancy to tilt her head when looking at something and she shook herself when she woke up in the morning. Angel looked at the tv and was shocked to see a picture of Paul next to the news reporter. She immediately listened and clutched the locket around her neck with the picture of Paul inside.

"Earlier today the son of Paul Roscoe was kidnapped by Team Rocket. There have been no demands as of yet and 16 year old Mike Roscoe has not been heard from. More on this story as it develops," the reporter said.

Angel stood and her foster parents knew something was wrong. Angel turned to them, her eyes full of sadness.

"I'm sorry but I have to go. I owe my life to a dear friend and now I must repay the debt," she said.

The Patersons just nodded as if they knew what Angel was going through. Angel bolted upstairs and packed her bag at full speed and grabbed her three pokeballs from her desk. As she dashed out again she saw Jake's astonished face as he walked past with his Linoone. Angel shouted a goodbye and ran to the pokemart nearby. She slowed as she got inside and bought a bunch of Repels, Antidotes, Pokeballs and food for her journey. As she left she had a thought.

_'I can't do this alone.'_

She continued walking and ran into Jake who stepped in front of her.

"I'm coming with you," he said firmly.

"What?" Angel asked.

"I said I'm coming with you. Angel you can't just leave without a proper explanation!" Jake said desparately.

Angel shifted uncomfortably and beckoned Jake to follow her. She walked into the woods surrounding the village and went behind a large oak. Just as Jake rounded the trunk Angel jumped from a high branch in front of him. Jake stumbled back.

"How'd you do that?" he asked, amazed.

"Please don't be scared but..."

Angel pulled her jacket off and turned around. Jake gasped as pale blue wings that came down to her ankles came into view. Angel turned her head to look him in the eye. Jake was mouthing things that no one would hear but Angel could hear it perfectly.

"She's a pokemorph... she is a pokemorph! Oh god..."

Angel closed her eyes and waited for the blow to fall.

"...COOL!"

Angel opened an eye and looked at Jake who was studying her wings as if he hadn't seen anything like it. Jake looked up to Angel and grinned.

"So where are we going?" he asked.

Angel smiled and hugged Jake close. Jake blushed and tried to get away but Angel's strength was unmatched. Suddenly Jake heard a beating sound and saw the ground fall away. He was flying! Angel smiled as she heard Jake cry out in surprise and wonder. Thankfully the area they were in was remote and there was no one around or they could get into big trouble. Jake laughed and spread his arms wide as if he could fly too. Angel flew they to the outskirts of Petalburg City and landed out of sight near the pokemon center. She released Jake and watched him stumble a little from vertigo.

"Okay so are you prepared for a long journey?" Angel asked.

"Umm... I have my pokemon, my map, a pokegear and my bike so yeah," Jake said listlessly.

Angel sweatdropped (anime style... this is a cartoon remember!). Then Jake did something impossible... he bent his arm backwards over his shoulder and reached into his backpack. He drew out a map and looked at it while Angel gaped.

"What?" he asked when he noticed her gaze.

"How'd you do that?" Angel whispered.

"Oh didn't you figure it out?" Jake asked. "I'm a Ditto pokemorph! Notice my slightly pink hair and the fact that I don't get spots or need to clean?"

Angel thought about it and realised that he must've been a naturally born pokemorph. They were so rare that there were only 14 recorded instances of naturally born pokemorphs in the world. Angel grinned as she thought. Jake's abilities would come in handy if they wanted to rescue Mike but first they needed to find more help. Also Angel remembered the ruthless way of Team Rocket's battling after having to go through a battle against a Charizard for a test. Because she was part flying she could evade a lot of attacks but couldn't beat the charizard because of her weakness to fire. Because Angel was the world's only Articuno morph and was also part ice.

"Okay then Jake... let's battle," Angel said.

"Huh?"

"We're going to get more allies and rally together to defeat Team Rocket and help a friend escape. I need to know if you're good at battling," Angel said.

"Why didn't you say so?" Jake replied.

And the battle was on.

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**That's the first chapter done and remember that only Angel's memory was erased not her knowledge. She can do her maths and know how to battle and catch pokemon and all that jizz. She just doesn't know anything about her life before the change. She there you have it and if you're kind and considerate you'll review and give me your view on the chapter.**

**Peace out!**


	2. Chapter 2: Everything Burns

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon but wish I did. heh

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**Chapter 2: Everything Burns**

_In a village near Verdanturf..._

A girl with blonde hair that was red at the tips ran from a mob of villagers chasing her. They were holding clubs, rakes and some had shovels that looked dangerous. The girl's name was Rebekah and she was being hunted just for being different than the others. She had tried to make friends but no one wanted to be anywhere near her and now people were trying to kill her. Rebekah felt angry and hateful towards the people. They didn't know what it was like to be left outside alone with no one to talk to, no shoulder to cry on, no friends to hang out with and hardly any food to live on. Rebekah tried to be a strict vegetarian but because of the near poisonous plants she had to eat Rattatas and Zigzagoons to survive. Her clothes were faded and torn slightly. A pale and yellow long-sleeved t-shirt adorned her torso and jeans wide at the botton clung to her hips. She wore no socks or shoes and her black eyes spoke of nothing but pain and sadness. She ran on but didn't spot the rock and tripped. She hurtled to the ground badly skinning her hands and feet. Smarting she turned over and looked up just as the first club descended. Her vision went white and she saw no more.

_At Petalburg Woods..._

Angel pulled a blue and white pokeball from her belt and pulled on her almost robe like black coat that reached her heels. She maximized the ball and threw it out. A small yet sturdy looking Corphish came out, clicking it's pincers. Jake looked impressed and pulled out his own pokeball. From it came his trademark Linoone and the battle began in full.

"Linoone use Headbutt!" Jake called.

Angel didn't give an order but watched as her Corphish jumped up out of the way.

"Crabhammer now!" she cried.

The left pincer on the Corphish glowed white with power and smashed into the Linoone's skull. It was knocked out cold and Jake returned it without a word. Angel nodded in approvement. No sentimentality meant no weakness. Jake pulled a second ball from his belt and summoned a Pikachu to the battlefield.

"So you know your types but don't think my Corphish is a pushover!" Angel called.

"I never do!" Jake replied. "But what you forgot is that Pikachu's thrive in the forest!"

Angel's eyes widened when the Pikachu leapt at a tree trunk and kicked off it with it's feet.

"Iron Tail!"

The tail on the Pikachu glowed a dull silver and crashed into Angel's Corphish full force. Even though it wasn't very effective it fainted the crab pokemon. Jake punched the air in triumph his dark brown hair waving in the breeze. Angel sighed and returned her Corphish. She then remebered that neither she or Jake had set the rules.

"Remember this is a six on six match!" she called.

Jake looked up in confusement.

"But I only have five!" he called back.

"Then I'll use five too!" Angel said.

She pulled a black and white ball from her belt and threw it out. A Sneasel popped out and it immediately drew out it's long claws. Jake clapped in delight and ordered a Thunderbolt from his Pikachu.

"Faint Attack!" Angel cried.

Just before the electric attack could hit the Sneasel disappeared and reappeared behind the Pikachu. It slashed and a large cut appeared on the Pikachu's back. Blood dripping from the wound the Pikachu swung around for a small Thunder Punch that left Angel's Sneasel paralysed. Jake grimaced at his Pikachu's injury but it seemed more than capable of fighting.

"Go while it's weakened! Use a Slam attack!" Jake said loudly.

Despite hurting badly the Pikachu spun on a foot and slammed it's stiffened tail into the twitching Sneasel knocking it out. Then Pikachu's injury caught up with it and it collapsed to the ground. Both trainers returned their respective pokemon and drew out another pokeball each. Angel looked at Jake with her red eyes and he stared back with his blank, black eyes.

"You know you're the only one to get this far against me," Angel said happily.

"Really? Well then the rest of the trainers round here must be crap," Jake said jokingly.

Then it was back to serious and they threw out there next pokemon. For Angel it was a Glalie and for Jake it was a Charmeleon. Angel blinked back a bead of sweat when she saw the Fire-Type and Jake grinned. He knew that Angel was nervous around fires and used this to his advantage. There was a dead bush near Angel and Jake grinned evilly.

"Charmeleon Flamethrower that bush!" he called.

The Charmeleon opened it's wide mouth and shot a stream of flame at the bush, which burst alight instantly. Angel shrieked and fell back at the sudden blaze. She opened her mouth and a zap of blue light shot at the burning bush, freezing it solid and putting out the fire. Jake sweatdropped nervously. Angel pointed at him, her eyes blazing.

"That was real cheap Jake!" she yelled angrily.

"Meh. Charmeleon Ember!" Jake called.

A barrage of small fireballs shot out of the Charmeleon's mouth and the Glalie fell back with a burn. Angel gasped and tossed an iceberry to it. The Glalie caught it in it's mouth and swallowed it whole. The burn seemed to magically fade and Jake sweatdropped again.

"Glalie use Water Pulse!" Angel cried.

Jake gasped and sure enough a rippling ring of water burst from the glalie and drenched the Charmeleon. It's flame began to get smaller and Jake feared for his pokemon's safety.

"Overheat!" he yelled.

The Charmeleon glowed red and steam rose off it as the water evaporated. The tail flame grew bigger and bigger until it was the same size as the Charmeleon. A near solid blast of fire was spewed straight at the Glalie, which shattered. Jake cried out in surprise, thinking he'd killed it, when the real Glalie tackled his Charmeleon from behind. So Angel's pokemon knew Substitute, well Jake wasn't falling for that again.

"Fire Spin Charmeleon!" Jake called quickly.

"Explosion!" Angel cried.

Just as Charmeleon was about to unleash it's attack Glalie exploded leaving both pokemon out for the count. Again a tie ensued and both trainers returned their pokemon. Jake pulled his fourth ball out and summoned a healthy looking Meganium out. Almost as if the Meganium was emanating life the nearby flowers and trees burst into bloom with new life. Angel gasped and looked at all the beautiful colours with delight. A loud and rude cough from Jake snapped her to her senses and she pulled out a half black, half white pokeball with it's colours running on the vertical axis (down the middle of the ball not the two halves).

"Go Ying!" she called.

Jake raised an eyebrow but smiled as Angel's Absol appeared from the confines of it's ball. Both pokemon and trainers eyed each other down and then the pokemon pounced. Ying rushed in for a Slash but Jake's Meganium was well trained and countered with a Body Slam. The result was that one was cut and one was crushed. Ying got up shakily and it's hook on the side of it's head glowed white. Jake knew it was going to use Razor Wind, a flying-type attack, and got ready for a counter. Then angel called the unexpected.

"Shadow Ball!" she called.

Ying opened it's mouth and gathered obsidian black energy and launched it. The Shadow Ball moved slower than usual and Jake was about to find out why.

"Combo Shadow Crush!" Angel yelled.

The glowing hook launched it's Razor Wind and the second attack collided with the Shadow ball creating a big black explosion effect. The dark force overwhelmed Jake's Meganium and it collapsed to the ground. Angel jumped and punched the air.

"I got it!" she cried.

"Not yet!" Jake retorted. "Sunny use Synthesis!"

The trees in the woods were thin and a lot of sunlight was pouring in so Jake's Meganium got up at near full health and Angel frowned. Her pokemon was badly hurt from the Body Slam and she thought of a strategy to beat the Meganium. Then she got an idea.

"Ying use Slash!" Angel called.

"Body Slam!"

Just as the pokemon were about to collide Angel gave a shout.

"Switchblade now!"

Ying turned round so that it's pointed tail hit Sunny in the face. Being stabbed like that hurt so much that Sunny couldn't get back up and Jake returned it with a sigh. Angel then returned Ying and they drew out their last pokeballs. Jake summonded his mightiest pokemon, his Ditto. Angel giggled and drew out a black and blue ball and tossed it out. A pokemon resembling a Sneasel appeared and Jake looked quizzically at it.

"It's a Manyula the evolved form of Sneasel. It has three claws instead of two and has a funny hairstyle," Angel said seriously.

Jake couldn't help but laugh and Angel giggled again. Then it was back to the battle.

"Ice use False Swipe!" Angel called.

"Mimic use Transform!" Jake called.

Mimic glowed pink and grew to a bigger size until Ice cut at thick orange scales. It looked up fearfully into the dragonic face of a Charizard. Angel huffed and ordered the next attack.

"Use Blizzard!" she cried.

Ice blew snow and hail at mimic but it had already taken off and flew above the cold stream.

"Fire Blast now!" Jake yelled.

"You don't mess about," Angel stated. "Fine. Ice use Shadow Rush!"

Ice glowed black and ran extremely fast to avoid the Fire Blast and then jumped to an extreme height, crashing into Mimic's stomach. Mimic roared in pain and fell to the earth, reverting into a Ditto, unconsious.

"Yeah we won Ice! We won!" Angel cried happily.

Jake returned Mimic and grinned. Angel returned Ice and ran over to Jake. She hugged him briefly and smiled warmly. For the first time Jake realised that Angel's pale blue hair, red eyes, pointy face and long eyebrows made her look extremely pretty. He blushed and looked away but Angel caught on quickly. She playfully punched him on the shoulder, laughing.

"Well you almost did it so you're in. But be warned that Team Rocket is not to be messed with. One wrong move and you'll be six feet under. I know this from personal experience," Angel added quietly.

"Yeah but we need more friends to help. It can't be just the two of us," Jake said.

"Duh. Well I think we should keep a low profile. Mind letting me ride you?" Angel asked.

Jake went beet red and Angel knew he was thinking of a totally different thing. She hit him again and gripped his shoulder in an iron hold. Jake used his malleable form to squeeze out of the hold and turned into a large Pidgeot for Angel to ride on. Angel sat herself on his back and they took flight, heading for Verdanturf the next destination.

"Why Verdanturf?" Jake asked during a break.

"Because it's near Mauville but out of the way so no one will notice us," Angel said wisely.

Half an hour later in the air Angel spotted smoke rising from a patch of forest and told Jake to land. Angel jumped off him and ran forwards. She began to put out small fires nearby with her Ice Beams and nearly tripped over a large form on the ground. She stumbled and turned, then gasped when she saw a girl about her age on the ground. She had ivory pale skin and flowing blonde hair with wavy red tips. Angel stared at a bloody lump on her head and she realised that the fires were started intentionally to leave the girl to die. Angel bent down to pick here up but stopped dead when she saw it. There was a small horn on the girl's head like that of a Rapidash's that was almost perfectly camoflauged against her skin. Angel heard pounding footsteps and knew that Jake had arrived. He kneeled next to her and let out the "hot" whistle that earned in a punch from Angel. While they inspected the girl the frozen fires began to crack, the ice breaking. Angel picked up the girl and slung her into the fireman's carry. They turned to leave and saw that the way they came was covered in flames. Angel jumped back with a cry and Jake shielded his head as a burning branch dropped from a nearby tree. The fire had grown so fast that it had almost surrounded them. They couldn't fly out as the canopy was ablaze as well. Jake was smart and turned into a Blastoise and began to douse the flames but it wasn't enough. The girl over Angel's back stirred and looked up into the flames. She screamed and struggled against Angel with inhuman strength. Her horn scratched Angel's shoulder and she was released.

"What's going on?" she screamed hysterically.

Angel cried out when another burning branch dropped and the girl stopped. She leapt gracefully over the flames and picked up Angel then backflipped over the flames again to Jake which she thought was Angel's pokemon. Angel kicked Jake's shell and he reverted to human form and looked at the pair. Without a word the stranger shocked them by turning into a Rapidash and Angel leapt on her back. Jake clambered on as well and they shot off faster than a pokeball being thrown. Jake clutched Angel's back as tight as he could and blinked when he saw her cut. He touched the blood dripping from it and his finger got burnt from the sheer cold of it. He grimaced when more flames licked at their heels and Angel began screaming again. The riders saw a gap in the canopy and the Rapidash leapt about 40m straight up. They cleared the forest and ran on until it was out of sight. When they stopped for a break Angel fell away from the other two and retched in a nearby shrub. The stranger became a girl again and looked quizzically at Jake. He smiled at her warily until she spoke.

"Are you a pokemorph too?" she asked.

"Yep. Ditto-morph through and through," he said nicely.

"I'm Rebekah," the girl said offering Jake her hand.

"And my name's Jake," said Jake shaking her hand and reeling back in pain as a burn appeared on it.

"Oh shit! I'm so sorry!" Rebekah cried.

he rolled up her sleeves and Jake saw that her wrists were on fire like a Rapidash's feet. He laughed a little but winced when Rebekah applied and ice pack to his hand. He swore and got cuffed on the back of the head by a pale yet well Angel. She offered Rebekah her hand and they shook, Angel thanking her profusely for saving her from the fires. Then Rebekah popped the question.

"Are you a pokemorph as well?"

"Yeah," was all she said.

"What kind?" Rebekah persisted.

Angel sighed deeply.

"I'm an Articuno-morph! Happy now?" she snapped.

Jake looked up in surprise and Rebekah stepped back slightly. To prove her point Angel removed her coat and unfolded her glorious wings. The others gasped, Jake included because they're so magnificent. Then came a shout and all three of them turned around, Angel putting her coat back on. In the distance a large something was heading for them but only Angel could see it properly with her bird-like vision. It was a mob. There was around thirty people, all armed.

"Let's get out of here!" she exclaimed.

"Where to mam?" Jake asked.

"Umm... Rustboro and make it quick!" Angel saqid after a second.

Jake grinned and turned into a Rapidash and Rebekah followed suit. Angel got on Jake and the three rode away, laughter floating on the evening air.

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**Dun, dun, dunnnn! Tell me what you think. But really, that's the last of the pokemorphs in our growing group of heroes. There will be more people and Rebekah will battle Angel but right now I bid you all goodnight and a Merry Christmas!**


	3. Chapter 3: Crash!

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon.**

_**To reviewers:**_

_**Ha! I'm not responding to personal reviews just all of them overall! So I can't get in trouble! Please don't delete this. Anyway thanks 4 the reviews and I hope you enjoy the coming chapters. This is Kgmck-117 saying Happy Christmas and have a good night!

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**Chapter 3: Crash!**

Angel continued riding on Jake with Rebekah following until they reached Rustboro City. Angel gasped when she saw the huge Devon Corp building and smiled in delight as they passed the Gym. No one challenged them as it just looked like a trainer and her two pokemon out for a ride. Angel once again thanked the Paterson's for buying her the cloak like coat she always wore. At least her foster parents didn't know she was a pokemorph. At last they reached the Rustboro Pokemon Center. Angel went with Jake and Rebekah round back so that the two could transform back. At least Jake looked normal but Angel was concerned about Rebekah's horn as it was plainly obvious in the evening light. Eventually Jake came up with something and got a cap and a pair of scissors. He cut off some of Rebekah's long fringe and shoved the cap on her head backwards. Angel smiled at the result. Rebekah's shortened fringe stuck out of the hole in the back of the cap and covered her horn perfectly. Angel pulled out a pocket mirror she used to help her brush the ends of her wings.

"Oh my god! I look almost normal!" Rebekah gasped when she saw herself.

"Yup!" Jake exclaimed.

Rebekah hugged him, Jake blushed brightly, and continued to examine herself in the tiny mirror. Jake and angel walked back round to the front of the Center and walked in, closely followed by Rebekah. None of the trainers paid them any attention and Rebekah continued to grin cheerily at the lack of attention she was receiving. Angel and the other two sat down at a small table with two couches and Angel curled upon her couch. Jake and Rebekah leaned over it and saw that she was already asleep. One after the other Jake and Rebekah eventually let sleep claim them as well.

The Nurse Joy of the Rustboro Pokemon Center noticed the sleeping three and smiled to herself. It wasn't often that you met three friends who felt at ease around each other. This particular Nurse Joy's first name was Carla and she was nearing the end of her shift. The other trainers scattered around the reception area were already asleep but the boy with the two girls was still awake. Carla thought to what she was keeping and how it needed out of here. She felt sorry for it and decided that if the boy was willing she would let him take it. Carla walked over to Jake who looked up and smiled.

"Yeah?" he asked pleasantly.

"Hi! I was wondering if you could come with me for a minute. I have a favour to ask of you," Carla said.

"Sure," was all Jake said.

Carla walked off and Jake followed after making sure the others were still asleep. Carla led him into the Medic1 ward were all the most critical conditioned pokemon were kept. She led him to the end bed and Jake gasped at what he saw. It was a badly beaten up Feebas that was quivering in fear at the sight of Jake and Carla.

"This Feebas was found in the streets because it's trainer abandoned it and it was beaten by trainers because they thought it was hideous. Feebas is better now but needs out in the world again. Unfortunately it can't go back into the wild because of what has happened," Carla explained.

Jake knew what was coming and picked up the Feebas who sniffed him and seemed to relax in his gentle hold. Carla stared in shock at how well Jake was able to calm Feebas down. Jake looked at Carla and his eyes said all that needed said. Carla nodded and gave him a pokeball with the letter M on it. Jake took it and weighed it in his hand.

"Why do I need a Masterball?" he asked.

"Think of it as a thank you present. A careless Rich Boy dropped this and I picked it up. He never returned for it," Carla said.

"Well… thanks I guess," Jake said unsurely.

He pulled a normal pokeball from a pocket and used it to contain Feebas who was still in his arms. Feebas didn't even fight back and Jake clipped the ball into the final slot on his belt. He grinned and pulled out the blue pokeblocks he had been saving for the last four months. He knew they'd come in handy later on if he wanted to evolve Feebas. After a moments thought he decided to call Feebas 'Ducky' like the Ugly Duckling. She may be ugly now but she will become more beautiful than any other pokemon. After thanking Carla again Jake went back to the main room and fell asleep in the same position he first sat down in. As he drifted off to sleep Angel opened her eyes slightly and smiled at him. With her super sensitive hearing she had heard everything. Jake smiled as well as if sensing that Angel knew. Then they both finally slept peacefully for the night.

Next morning Rebekah was the first to wake up, around 6:30am. She looked at the other two and decided to go for a run. She left the Center and did a few warm up exercises. After that she crouched low as if about to do a sprint and if anyone was watching it looked like she just disappeared. Rebekah ran hard nearing 135mph, which was even faster than a real Rapidash could reach. Anyone now looking would just see a blur of colour and dismiss it as a trick of the light. After ten minutes of hard running and reaching Mauville Rebekah turned around and sped up even faster, now at 150mph. She sped through small towns and across water as if it was solid ground. It took her only five minutes to reach the Pokemon Center back in Rustboro and she walked in to find that Jake and Angel had woken up as well and were preparing to leave. She panted slowly as she walked up to them.

"Hey guys!" she wheezed.

"Hi Rebekah. Me and Angel were just getting ready to go out for breakfast. We were going to leave a note but you're here so let's go!" Jake said happily.

As they left Angel could hear shouting and what sounded like a low, rumbling sound. She told the other two and they looked around them. Then Rebekah spotted it.

"The Devon Corp Building's on fire!" she yelled.

Angel, Jake and Rebekah ran up to it. A crowd gathered round them and watched as the three teens struggled against the blaze. Angel had her Corphish using Water gun on the fires near the bottom and Rebekah had a Relicanth using Hydro Pump. Jake watched for any signs of trouble when an explosion rocked the earth they all stood on. The crowd gasped and screamed at something and Jake looked up. A man had been thrown from a high window and was falling to the ground very fast. Having no time Jake drew back his arm and threw it out as if punching the arm. However his arm stretched like a rubber band and snagged the man by the scruff of his coat. Jake lowered him to the ground and with an elongated kick, burst open the fire exit. Workers battled to get out of the building and people gasped and oohed as the trio managed to beat back the flames. The explosion however had set the top floors alight and with the bottom secure Rebekah grabbed the two water pokemon and ran in. The stairwell had collapsed but using small metal sections sticking from the walls Rebekah managed to leap her way up. Near the 15th floor Rebekah stopped and with Corphish and Relicanth, extinguished the flames on that floor. After five minutes Rebekah reached the top floor and began battling the flames. Once they were out she breathed a sigh of relief. Then the wall she was facing exploded thanks to something called backdraft, which is where a fire travels through the walls until reaching max pressure and exploding. Rebekah was thrown off her feet and smashed through the office window.

On the ground Angel and Jake watched as Rebekah ran in with the two pokemon. Every few minutes the fires on a floor would go out and everyone would sigh with relief. When there was one floor left angel began to get uneasy. She put this suspicion past Jake who agreed. Then the windows on the top floor blew out littering the ground with glass. Angel looked up and saw Rebekah, Corphish and Relicanth falling out.

"Get the pokemon!" Angel yelled to Jake as she flung her coat off.

The crowd gasped as Angel spread her wings and shot into the air. She reached Rebekah and tried to grab her but missed and Rebekah slammed into her. Angel was thrown off balance and dived down after her unconscious friend. She folded her wings for maximum descent velocity and grabbed Rebekah. The ground was too close now and Angel spread her wings, righting them at the last moment and throwing them into a roll across the ground. Angel groaned and sat up, rubbing her head. The crowd gathered around the three and Angel closed her eyes in despair. Jake looked nervous and Rebekah, who had woken up, gulped. Then a cheer went into the air and the three looked up in amazement as the crowd cheered and shouted in triumph. Angel caught a few words of what was said.

"They're heroes!"

"Hurray!"

"Three cheers for these people!"

After the commotion had settled down the president of Devon Corp, Mr Stone, who was the man Jake had caught personally thanked Angel and her friends for saving them and the building from burning down. Rebekah told Angel quietly that she had seen a Team Magma Grunt run away from the building when the fires started and Jake chimed in that he had ran away with a Machoke that was carrying something.

"The PRM is gone!"

A scientist ran up to the crowd screaming.

"Someone took the PRM!" he cried.

"What's that?" Angel asked.

"It's also known as the Pokemon Resurrection Machine and can be used to bring fossils back to life," Mr Stone told them.

Angel called the other two into a group huddle and they conversed.

"Hmm… Team Magma could be planning anything. I say we go after them!" Jake said.

"I say we continue with our original plan," Rebekah said.

Angel considered it for a moment.

"We'll go after Team Magma then. If we can recover the machine they stole and return it we might just get enough popularity here to recruit some more trainers willing to help us beat Team Rocket," Angel told them both.

"Well I'm one."

The three turned around and saw a teenage boy watching them. He was wearing a red jacket and a yellow cap that was backwards letting a large amount of hair stick out of the gap. He also wore black jeans and had a belt full of pokeballs. Angel studied him minutely from where she was standing.

"You say you want to help us defeat Team Rocket?" she asked.

"Sure!" the boy said. "My name's Jimmy by the way."

He and Angel shook hands and Angel outlined her goal to Jimmy who nodded. Then Angel remembered something.

"Oh yeah! Rebekah we haven't had our initiation battle yet," she said.

"You mean I have to battle you?" Rebekah asked.

"Yes. Jake had to battle me too so I suggest a True Double Battle. Me and Jimmy vs. Rebekah and Jake," Angel said.

"Right!" said the other three.

Angel and Jimmy pulled out a pokeball each and summoned their pokemon. Angel, her Manyula Ice, and Jimmy, his Beedrill. Rebekah summoned a Minun and Jake summoned his Ditto which transformed into a Plusle.

* * *

_**BATTLE SITUATION**_

_**Angel's Ice and Jimmy's Beedrill vs. Rebekah's Minun and Jake's Ditto (Plusle form)**_

_**Double battle one-on-one.**_

_**BATTLE COMMENCE!

* * *

**_

Ice and Beedrill rushed forwards to deliver melee strikes but Ditto transformed into an Aggron and took the attacks. Jimmy grinned when Ditto grimaced as if feeling ill.

"No! Ditto's been poisoned!" Jake cried.

"Minun use Shock Wave!" Rebekah commanded.

A wave of electricity was released from Minun and Beedrill was hit first, getting badly shocked.

"Use Faint Attack Ice!" Angel called.

Ice disappeared before damage could be done and hit Ditto who was back to normal form. Ditto fainted and Jake stepped back as he was beaten. Rebekah frowned and resolved to beat at least one of them. Minun was charging power and releasing sparks from it's body, which kept the other pokemon at bay.

"Minun use Quick Attack on Manyula!" she cried.

"Ice block!" Angel cried.

Minun charged forward and Ice crossed it's arms to block the hit. Rebekah grinned.

"Switch to Thunder!" she cried.

Minun jumped up, over Ice, and unleashed a huge amount of energy at the unfortunate pokemon. Ice was shocked, paralysed, fainted, brought back from shock, paralysed again and finally collapsed. While the devastation was underway Jimmy ordered Beedrill to use a Twinneedle on Minun. Angel blinked in shock from being beaten and returned Ice while Minun, who was exhausted from the Thunder, collapsed when Beedrill hit it from behind. Jimmy smiled.

"Oh yeah! I'm the winner and there can only be one! I'm the last one standing! Another one bites the dust," he cried.

Beedrill came up to him for congratulations and Jimmy was only too happy to oblige.

"You rock! You rule!" he said to Beedrill, giving his pokemon the thumbs-up.

Jimmy's Beedrill did what appeared to be a thumbs-up or rather a needles-up. Angel smiled and Jake sweatdropped at Jimmy's performance. Rebekah was however, quite quiet and Jake noticed. He stood next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked him in the eye and gave him a small smile. Jake gave her a questioning look and she sighed softly.

"It's my 15th birthday tomorrow. But I've never celebrated it because my life has been not but misery and pain," she said in a watery voice.

"Well with friends life becomes a whole lot brighter and I say that you can forget your troubles. You're with us now and I'm not letting you be sad when it's a time to celebrate. And I celebrate your birthday because you make my life that much happier," Jake said seriously.

Rebekah laughed at his cheesy speech but gave him a kiss anyway to make him happy. Jake smiled and led her over to the other two and gave them the news. Angel ran to a cash machine and withdrew a handful of notes and then disappeared somewhere, leaving everyone with sweatdrops. Jimmy blinked and reached into his pouch. After a bit of rummaging he pulled out a bright pink pokenav and handed it wordlessly to Rebekah who almost cried at the kind gesture. That left Jake to wonder what he was going to get Rebekah. Just as he was about to think of something he looked around and saw Angel coming back, her coat billowing out behind her. Jake sighed and turned to Jimmy who had calmed down.

"So have you got a special girl somewhere?" he asked.

"Well... there is this girl... you wouldn't know her," Jimmy said nervously.

"Oh come on!" Jake said teasingly.

"Well her name is Marina. I've liked her since we met at Prof Elm's lab in New Bark Town," Jimmy said.

Just then Angel reached the group. She was about to say something but there was a crunching noise and the ground beneath them crumbled and down a large pit they fell with a crash. Angel groaned and knew that this just wasn't her day.

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**That's chap 3 done for all you poke lovers! I'm off to bed now so goodnight, bye bye, adios, ciao, see ya later! If I get 3 more reviews I'll update again. You know you want to so go on. Give the blue button a click. Go on, go! lol**


	4. Chapter 4: Plain and Simple

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon or used materials belonging to others so don't sue me!**

_**I've been thinking and I'm gonna add a few more teammates to the group. There will be six heroes, three normal humans. The next person to be added is kinda obvious considered who's in the group already but I'll leave you to figure it out. Oh and the date in this story is the 4th of June. And just so that you know the next two people added will both be girls. I will also describe some attacks used in or out of battle so that people know what I'm on about.

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**_

**Chapter 4: Plain and Simple**

Angel was the first to recover from the fall and looked up. The hole she and the others had fallen through was at least two meters wide but was now the size of a matchbox. The four of them had fallen at least five stories and Angel realised with a shock that Jimmy wouldn't have survived as he is a normal human. Angel looked around her and spotted Jake thanks to his pink sheen in the dark, but Jimmy and Rebekah were no where to be seen. Jake sat up rubbing his head and looked at Angel.

"What happened?" he asked.

"We fell into some sort of hole. We're deep underground," Angel explained.

"Well at least we can get out," Jake said happily.

He transformed into a Murkrow and, along with Angel, he took off into the air. Just as they reached the top they hit something and couldn't get past. Angel wrapped on the air and the sound of metal being hit was heard. Angel turned to Jake who was hovering beside her as a Masquerain.

"It's an invisible wall. We can't get out of here!" she said sadly.

Jake clung to the wall of the shaft and turned into his human form.

"I'll get us out!" he cried in determination.

He let go of the wall and turned into a Flygon and then used Dig to burrow into the wall.

_Dig. This attack makes you prepare for one turn then hit the enemy. You can't be hit by anything while underground apart from a ground move like Earthquake._

Angel followed Jake into the dark tunnel and had to crawl because of the lack of room. She heard digging from up ahead and realised that Jake had slowed down a lot. There was a sickening crack and a howl of pain. Angel sped up until she could vaguely see Jake clutching a hand.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I broke my wrist. This dirt must have a metal ore in it or something! We can't dig out," Jake said.

Angel gently took his wrist and blew on it. Jake gasped and lifted his arm to look at an ice coated wrist. He couldn't feel the pain anymore and his wrist was going numb. Angel smiled at him and turned back. Jake smiled a little to himself as well and followed without transforming. They reached the main shaft and dropped down, Angel using her wings to slow herself. Jake opted to freefall and hit the ground hard but didn't so much as flinch. Angel landed next to him and looked at him.

"If you can fall 50ft then how come you broke your wrist?" she asked.

"I was a pokemon then and my Ditto abilities only apply in my human or Ditto form," Jake explained.

Angel accepted this and came up with a plan on getting out.

"Get yourself warm Jake! It's about to get cold in here," she said.

"I'm not going anywhere," Jake said nervously.

Angel just grinned and spread her arms wide. Jake shivered as the temperature dropped like a rock. Snow started to fall as the water vapour froze and Jake smiled despite the chill. Angel then threw her arms forwards and up as the snow became heavier. The Blizzard attack shot upwards at the invisible wall and Jake saw it freeze over. He understood Angel's plan and transformed into a Dragonite. Angel took flight and followed Jake as they shot for the surface. Angel's long coat flapped around her waist from being tied there after the fall. Jake shot up some more and crashed straight through the unseen barrier and into the light of the afternoon. Angel laughed and smiled as the light washed over her and did a loop in the air before landing lightly on her feet. She threw her coat back on and turned to see Rebekah and Jimmy in a pokemon battle with to people. One was a woman with long red hair that reached down her back before curling at the end. It reminded Angel of a snake's tail. The other was a man with blue hair that reached his chin level. Both wore white uniform's with a red R symbolised of the front. Angel's hands clenched so hard that her knuckles popped but she ignored it. It was Team Rocket! Angel dashed to Jimmy's side and the two looked taken aback.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Only two on two twerp!" said the girl.

"That's right twerp play by the rules!" the man added.

Angel growled but Jake held her back. She looked into his eyes and calmed down after a while. She nodded to herself and let Rebekah and Jimmy get them. It looked like the battle had just started. The blue-haired man was using a Cacnea and the woman was using a Seviper. There was a Chimecho hanging in midair next to the man. A Meowth watched the battle at the feet of the two people. Jimmy was using his strong looking Typhlosion and Rebekah was using her Blaziken.

_**BATTLE SITUATION**_

_**Rebekah's Blaziken and Jimmy's Typhlosion vs. TR's Seviper and Cacnea**_

_**BATTLE COMMENCE!**_

"Cacnea use Pin Missle on the Blaziken!" the man shouted.

'Caaa-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca!' yelled the pokemon as a barrage of tiny pins shot from it's needle arms. Rebekah's Blaziken tried to dodge but there were to many and was struck by a lot of them causing a critical hit and a fair bit of damage. Rebekah scowled while Jimmy sweatdropped as the woman's Seviper used Haze.

_Haze. Eliminates all stat changes from both pokemon._

The Haze spread throughout the battlefield and Jimmy and Rebekah started coughing as they breathed the fumes. Their pokemon didn't fair as well either as they couldn't see their opponents but were under attack. Typhlosion was the first to fall but Jimmy couldn't return it as he couldn't see. The man ordered his Chimecho to use a Psychic on Blaziken and the super effective attack knocked out Blaziken as well. After that the smoke seemed to miraculously clear and both trainers returned their pokemon. Angel looked at Jake and nodded. Jake was about to throw them away with his arm when a male voice cried:

"Team Rocket!"

The entire assembly turned around and saw a group of four people approaching. Angel saw the one in the lead and gasped. It was Ash Ketchum! His Pikachu hung onto his shoulder as he and the three others ran up to the group. There was an older boy who looked Asian and a little boy with large glasses. Finally there was a pretty girl with a red bandanna (whatever it is) on her head, covering brown hair with long brown bangs. There four skidded to a halt and Ash looked at the two Rockets in disgust.

"So now you're picking on other people too? You guys are really low!" he shouted.

The woman looked at her team-mate.

"Well James to you think we should get Pikachu?" she asked.

"But of course Jessie!" the man called James replied.

The Meowth jumped in front of them with an extendable arm and used it to grab Pikachu off of Ash's shoulder. He gasped and tried to snatch Pikachu back but missed and Pikachu struggled to get free. The yellow mouse then tried to shock Team Rocket but the metal frame absorbed the electricity and the rubber handles protected the Meowth. Angel noted that it stood easily on it's hind legs. Then it did something weird... it spoke:

"Nyah, nyah! We got yer Pikachu!" it said evilly.

"Give her back now!" Ash screamed.

The woman called Jessie faltered.

"You mean this Pikachu is female?" she asked in surprise.

"Well I always did wonder it's gender," said James.

Then they were back to their old selves and hopped into a basket at the edge of a line of trees. It lifted into the air and everyone saw that they were in a Meowth hot-air balloon. Ash pulled a pokeball from his belt. He was about to summon what was inside when Angel held up her hand.

"I'll get Pikachu!" she said.

The four ran up to Angel and her friends.

"Thanks. What pokemon will you use?" he said gratefully.

"Who said I needed one?" Angel asked mischievously.

Then she tossed her coat off and gave it to Jake who held onto it carefully, knowing how much it meant to her. Ash and his friends backed off slightly when they saw her wings unfold but Angel smiled at them and they calmed down.

"Be careful!" Ash called as she flew into the air.

In the Rocket balloon the two Rockets and Meowth were gathered around Pikachu and snapping an electro-ring around her. This made her power useless and kept her from moving. Jessie sat back and laughed an evil laugh to herself. James just smiled and Meowth was day-dreaming about what the boss would think. Suddenly the basket shook and all three of them were up, thinking that they were under attack. There was nothing in sight...

"BOO!"

James squealed and fell out of the basket only to grab onto one of the sandbags. Jessie turned and saw Angel balancing on the edge of the basket, crouched like a cat. She smiled and spoke to Angel in a calm yet commanding voice.

"So Angel we meet at last. I must say I expected you to be a little more intimidating," she said.

"How's this then?" Angel asked.

Then she turned to her Articuno form and grabbed Pikachu with her talons and soared away but stayed long enough to use a powerful Gust to blow Team Rocket away. Back on the ground the Asian guy introduced to be Brock was trying to flirt with Rebekah. Becoming devious he tripped her backwards and caught her to make it look like he saved her. Then her cap fell off and Brock saw her horn. He let her fall to the ground with a thud. Rebekah bounced up and rolled back a sleeve to show a burning fist and punched Brock in the gut sending him flying back to Ash and the other two, called May and Max.

"Her technique is not unlike Misty's," Max whispered to May.

"Yeah. She just... is... more direct," May replied.

Rebekah heard every word of their conversation and gave them a sly grin. Both sweatdropped and remained silent. Then a loud beating told them that Angel had returned. They all looked up and May gasped at just how beautiful a person with wings could look. Max thought that it was just impossible to successfully combine human and pokemon DNA and all Ash was worried about was Pikachu's safety. Angel landed lightly and handed the bound pikachu to Ash.

"Thanks. I owe you big time..." Ash said.

"Angel. And the pleasure was mine," Angel replied to Ash's unspoken question.

Meanwhile Max was examining the ring binding Pikachu. His glasses flashed as he looked up at the rest of them.

"It's a mix between durasteel and plexiglass. Nothing but a Rhydon could break it," Max said sadly.

"Well we don't have one," the others said.

Then Jake popped up and looked at Ash. He saw sadness and love in his eyes and couldn't bear to see such a caring trainer so down.

"One Rhydon coming up!" he cried.

With a popping noise he transformed into a Rhydon and used his spinning drill to break apart the ring. Pikachu immediately felt her energy rush back and did a small Thundershock for joy. Ash nearly cried in happiness but held back his tears and hugged pikachu tightly. Jake grinned and stepped back while Angel stepped back up to Ash. They shared a long look then Angel addressed him.

"As you can see Ash not all pokemorphs are as bad as most claim. My goal right now is to take down Team Rocket and rescue a friend kidnapped by them. I'm fighting for revenge because they did this to me! indicates wings etc. It's because of them I can't live a normal life! I'm going to take the fight to them and destroy them no matter what! Angel looks to her friends who are standing uncomfortably With my friends, no my good friends I'm sure we'll succeed. So Ash, goodbye. I hope we meet again!" Angel said seriously.

Everyone in the crowd was very moved by Angel's speech and May was the worst affected. She looked at the four ribbons she had and realised that they didn't mean so much when other people needed helplike Angel. Angel and her friends walked off and started to chat happily to each other about the fight with Team Rocket. Ash and co sat on a large rock and mulled things over.

"What do you think Ash? You think they're good?" Brock asked.

"Oh course! I mean they got Pikachu back and beat Team Rocket again. I hope we meet them again," Ash said.

May stood up and everyone looked at her.

"I'm going with them," she said.

Max was dumbfounded and Brock was shocked but Ash knew exactly what May was thinking. He would do the same thing if he didn't want to be a pokemon master. Max and May argued about why May wanted to go and Brock tried to calm them down. However he had no effect on them whatsoever. Ash stood up as well and laid a hand on May's shoulder. She looked at him and he turned her around. Then he pulled her into a strong hug.

"I'll miss you May. Go get 'em!" he whispered.

"We'll see each other again," May promised, her voice thick with tears.

Ash and May parted and May ran after the quickly departing group. Max tried to go after her but Ash held him back.

"Max this is May's thing. Is she wants to help then let her. Personally I think May is incredibly brave to do this and I'm proud of her," Ash said.

"But I don't want her to go!" Max shouted. "I want to stay with her!"

"I'll miss her too Max but think... you will see her again. I mean just how big do you think Team Rocket could be?" Ash said with a laugh.

Max sighed a depressing sigh and sat on the path.

"You're right. But I'll really miss her... I just hope she forgets that incident with that Harley and his Cacturne," Max said sadly.

**Meanwhile in a far away place...**

A man in a smart red three-piece suit sat in a fine leather chair stroking a magnificent Persian. He held a photo in one hand and a report sat on his desk in front of him. He crumpled the photo and looked at the world map on the right hand wall. There were thousands of red lights on it. Each one was a base somewhere. And every minute or so another would appear. The man smiled and stroked his Persian. His project might have escaped again but she wouldn't escape again. Because Team Rocket was _everywhere...

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_

**Chapter 4 done at last. Hope you enjoyed reading it and people who like AshxMay please don't flame me! I promise that May isn't gonna fall for anyone in the roup but I can tell you that when the last person is there then I'll play a bit of evil matchmaker! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Cough, cough**


	5. Chapter 5: Strength of the Soul

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon... but if I did then Ash and May would be dating!**

_**To my adoring and adorable fans:**_

_**Thanks so much for all your reviews and I hope you're enjoying my fic. Anyways I've decided that there will be one more person in the group and it was be a male member. I mean wouldn't you be intimidated by three girls and only having one male friend? Anyways this guy won't be a pokemorph and he will he a complete OC. Bye for now...

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**Chapter 5: Strength of the Soul**

May panted as she ran hard to reach her new friends who had stopped half a kilometre away. Looking ahead she noticed that one of them was looking right at her and realised that they had stopped for her. She ran faster and nearly collapsed when she skidded to a halt near them. Angel and Jake were looking at her and seemed to know her intentions while Jimmy and Rebekah were sparring. May was startled to see that they were fighting each other... without pokemon. Jake cheered when Jimmy did a low kick at Rebekah's heel knocking her on her back. Jimmy lunged forwards but Rebekah kicked out and sent him hurtling back. Angel stood next to May and May suddenly became nervous. Angel glanced at her and smiled. May smiled back and then sat on a nearby rock to watch the progressing fight.

Jimmy appeared to be a very capable fighter but he was outclassed by Rebekah's skill with her feet. Jimmy tried to grab her and throw her but she ducked low and swiped his shins causing him to stumble. Then she leapfrogged over his back but he lashed out with a back kick that made her crash to the ground and he surprised everyone by back flipping onto her back and pinning her. Rebekah ignited her wrists making Jimmy reel back in pain and rolled onto her shoulders pushing off the ground to land on her feet lightly. Jimmy then adopted a kickboxing stance and lashed out while Rebekah blocked with her own leg. Jimmy then pivoted on one foot and drove his other into Rebekah's stomach causing her to bend over clutching her stomach. Jimmy moved in for the finisher but Rebekah was tricking him. When he came close enough she did an amazing uppercut that sent him into the air a 10ft away. In a single jump Rebekah was crouching on his chest while he struggled to get up. Finally...

"I give up! You're too good Rebekah!" Jimmy cried.

Rebekah jumped off him and helped him to his feet. He gasped for air and rubbed his aching stomach. His looked thoughtfully at Rebekah as he recovered.

"Where'd you learn that?" he asked in awe.

"Just places... When you're being chased by people who want your head then you tend to learn a few tricks," Rebekah said, grinning impishly.

Jimmy just nodded and sat on the boulder next to May. May looked at him sweating profusely and patted his back a bit. He just looked at her and nodded in thanks, too tired to talk. Rebekah put her cap back on her head and immediately checked to make sure her horn was hidden. May watched her with interest until Jake asked the question.

"So are you here to help?"

May looked at him and nodded. Angel considered her for a moment as if sizing her up.

"You don't need the initiation battle. I know you're a good trainer," she said after some thought.

"WHAT!" everyone else yelled.

Angel wasn't phased in the slightest.

"Well obviously May must be good. She travelled with THE Ash Ketchum," she retorted.

There were mutters of agreement but most of the group looked disappointed. May looked round them and decided to cheer them up.

"Who wants to see my pokemon coordination?" she asked.

Almost everyone raised their hand. Angel just smiled and nodded to herself as May chose one of her pokemon. She held out the ball and threw it into the air. It burst open and the usual white light rushed to the ground and reformed into a small Bulbasaur. Angel looked at it and awwed at how cute it was.

"Look it has two love hearts on it's head!" Rebekah exclaimed.

May's Bulbasaur looked happy at all the attention and May began the show.

"Let's start with Razor Leaf into Vine Whip!" May called.

Bulbasaur released a flurry of razor sharp leaves that spun super fast. Then two vines extended from it's back and whipped each leaf, stopping it dead and the leaf twirled and floated slowly to the ground. Jimmy and Rebekah clapped while Jake whistled.

"Now use Petal Dance!" May cried happily.

Bulbasaur then released a series of beautiful pink petals like a Razor Leaf attack and the petals twirled and danced around Bulbasaur as they fell to the ground. Even Angel clapped her hands in delight at the spectacular show May was putting on. May decided on the BIG finale she had been working on for a while.

"Bulbasaur wrap this up! Solar Beam!" she exclaimed.

It was a little cloudy in the afternoon but there was enough sunlight for Bulbasaur to gather on the tip of it's bulb. The tip glowed a white light and a large blast of solar power shot into the sky and amazingly the clouds cleared away to leave the group blinking in the sunlight. May and Bulbasaur did a bow and the others went wild. Jake was clapping so hard his hands were raw. Angel was in the air cheering and Rebekah, along with Jimmy, was jumping up and down in delight. May glowed with pride and gratitude from the praise they were receiving. Angel settled back on the ground and shook May's hand.

"That was the most impressive display I've seen yet," she said seriously.

"Thanks. I just wanted to cheer you all up," May said sheepishly.

The others smiled and Angel put her coat back on after removing it from her waist.

"Well May you did just that. You have strength of the soul that I haven't seen in someone since..." Angel trailed off as her mind wandered back to Paul. But she didn't have time to dwell on it as Jimmy was next to her.

"Angel I say you should give Rebekah an arm wrestle!" he exclaimed.

Jake and Rebekah cheered and Rebekah cracked her fingers. Angel backed away, though smiling widely. May sighed and literally dragged Angel over to Rebekah. Angel saw the rock that May had sat of and gripped the sides of it tightly and ripped the thing out of the ground. It turned out to be a massive boulder and Jake turned into a Regirock and used his gaia-kinetic powers to make a table of sorts out of it. Angel placed it on the ground and kneeled on one side removing her coat and rolling up the sleeve on her right arm. Rebekah grinned and knelt on the other side. They locked hands and placed their elbows on the table ready to start. May did the countdown to begin.

"3, 2, 1 and GO!" she cried.

Instantly the muscles on Rebekah's and Angel's arms stood out slightly but neither gave an inch. Jake cheered for Angel while Jimmy cheered for Rebekah. May looked closely from a distance and saw that Rebekah was straining to even move Angel's arm and that Angel wasn't even trying. After a minute and a half May saw that Rebekah was getting exhausted and Angel moved for the kill, smashing Rebekah's hand into the rock... or so everyone thought. Rebekah gasped and panted from the effort of holding Angel still but there was no mistaking it. She had stopped Angel's hand just millimetres from the tabletop. Then she pressed hard and Angel gasped when her hand moved back up to it's starting position and further the other way. She fought back and sweat popped up on both pokemorph's foreheads. May was shocked at how much strength they had yet they didn't seem to have much arm muscle. She made a mental note never to underestimate anyone's strength ever again. Both Angel and Rebekah were struggling now... and then the hands moved to one side and, with a thud, hit the table. Angel sighed as Rebekah tried to extricate her hand from the table as it had become imbedded in the rock. Jake cheered loudly and Jimmy growled as he gave Jake a $10 bill.

After resting for a while the group began to move onwards to their next destination, which was the town of Verdanturf by going through Rusturf Tunnel. Angel stayed silent through the journey but Rebekah and Jimmy were talking animatedly. Jake spoke briefly to May and then decided to stay silent as well. May got a bit bored and thought that some singing would help pass the time. She started humming to herself but became steadily louder and louder until she was actually singing the words but not so loudly as to annoy the others. However they heard her and listened... (this is the one from the second movie)

"_I wanna take the ultimate step  
Find the courage to be bold (Yeah)  
To risk it all and not forget  
The lessons that I hold _

I wanna go where no one's been  
Far beyond the crowd  
To learn the way to take command  
Use the power that's in my hand

We all live in a Pokemon World  
(Pokemon World)  
I wanna be the greatest Master of them all  
(Master of them all)  
We all live in a Pokemon World  
Put myself to the test  
To be better than all the rest

Every day along the way  
I will be prepared  
(I will be prepared)  
With every challenge I will gain  
The knowledge to be shared

In my heart there's no doubt of who I want to be  
Right here standing strong  
(Standing next to me)  
I will risk ?  
The greatest Master of Pokemon

We all live in a Pokemon World  
(Pokemon World)  
I wanna be the greatest Master of them all  
(Master of them all)  
We all live in a Pokemon World  
Put myself to the test  
To be better than all the rest

So you wanna be a Master of POKEMON?  
Understand the secrets and HAVE SOME FUN  
So you wanna be a Master of POKEMON?  
Do you have the skills to be NUMBER ONE!

We're living  
(I say we're living in a)  
We're living  
(In a Pokemon World)  
We're living  
(in a Pokemon World)  
We're living in a  
(Pokemon!)

We all live in a Pokemon World  
(Pokemon World)  
I wanna be the greatest Master of them all  
(Master of them all)

We all live in a Pokemon World  
Put myself to the test  
To be better than all the rest  
(Better than all the rest)

We all live in a Pokemon World  
(Pokemon World)  
I wanna be the greatest Master of them all  
(Master of them all)  
We all live in a Pokemon World  
Put myself to the test  
To be better than all the rest"

When May finished everyone smiled and Angel burst into a song of her own. This one was slower and little more serious yet just as catchy. (from the end of the second movie)

"_You must always remember _

Life can be a challenge  
Life can seem impossible  
It's never easy when so much is on the line

But you can make a difference  
With courage you can set things right  
The gift to dream and make dreams real  
Is yours and mine

The power of one  
Begins with believing  
It starts in the heart  
Then flows through the soul  
And changes the world  
Imagine how life will be  
When we stand in unity  
Each of us holds the key  
To the power of one

Each of us is chosen  
There's a mission just for you  
Just look inside you'll be surprised  
What you can do

The power of one  
Begins with believing  
It starts in the heart  
Then flows through the soul  
And changes the world  
Imagine how life will be  
When we stand in unity  
Each of us holds the key  
To the power of one

And one by one  
We can make the world a much better place

The power of one  
Begins with believing  
It starts in the heart  
Then flows through the soul  
And changes the world  
Imagine how life will be  
When we stand in unity  
Each of us holds the key  
It's inside of you and me  
Each of us holds the key  
To the power of one"

Just as she finished the group exited the tunnel and stood in the sunlight of Verdanturf. Jake breathed in deeply and sighed relaxingly at the sweetness of the air. Everyone followed his example and Angel was pleasantly surprised at how fresh air could be. May then piped up to explain.

"Verdanturf is an out-of-the-way village that volcanic ash could never reach. As a result the air is fresh and just staying here can do wonders for your health," she said smartly.

Angel smiled and looked around at the peaceful view.

"It's my kind of place," she said peacefully.

Just then there was a loud buzzing and a light blue biplane flew overhead and next to it was something that made everyone gasp. It was an Articuno! It flew next to the biplane as if guarding it's passenger but something happened and smoke poured from the front of it. Angel was in the air as soon as the nose tilted down and transformed into an Articuno for speed. She reached it just before impact and pulled a man from the pilot's seat before the explosion ripped through the air, catching Angel and tossing her like a rag doll to the ground. She let go of the man and bounced once before hitting a tree and falling to the ground again. The rest of the group made it in under a minute, May complaining about running. When they got there they found a wrecked biplane and a tall man with a red hat on looking over Angel, whose coat was being held by May. The man wasn't in the least bit perturbed by the wings emanating from Angel's back and looked up with a friendly smile when they showed up.

"Hi! I'm Noland of the Kanto Battle Factory. Is this your friend? She's had a nasty concussion," the guy called Noland said.

May walked up to him and smiled.

"Oh yeah I remember you! Ash's Charizard beat your Articuno in the Battle Factory!" she exclaimed.

A shadow passed over Noland's face but it was gone in a second. He smiled and shook May's hand while the others laid Angel on a sleeping bag to assess the damage. Jake, who was good at injuries, concluded that Angel was lucky to get out of the explosion alive but had bad news. She had broken her left wing and wouldn't be able to fly until it healed. Noland was pretty sad to hear this and called for Articuno.

"This is my friend who I helped when it had injured it's wing. I was on a test flight of my plane and it started flying alongside me. There was some turbulence and Articuno almost fell out of the sky! I had it land on top of my plane and I set her down. After that i helped Articuno to heal and it visited me with regularity after that," Noland explained.

May had heard this story before and wasn't listening but was sitting next to Angel, wrapping her wing in some bandages. Angel stirred and cried out in pain from her wing causing the Articuno to squawk in sympathy. Noland looked at his friend and the icy bird stared back unblinkingly with it's red eyes.

"Wow..."

Noland and the others turned around to see Angel sitting up, staring at the Articuno next to Noland. May put a hand on Angel's shoulder to stop her from moving too much and Jake asked if she was okay.

"I'm fine Jake don't worry. She's a nice Articuno mister," she said enviously.

"She? Oh it's a female! But how could you tell?" Noland asked.

With a familiar flash of blue light Angel turned once more into her Articuno form and Noland's Articuno gave a cry which Angel responded to just as loudly. The birds looked at each other and Angel scratched at her undamaged wing with her beak as a sign of trust to the other Articuno. Noland was in shock about Angel's transformation and blubbered slightly until he got his voice back.

"Wings are one thing but that was just weird!" he cried.

Angel turned back into her normal self and scratched her nose in thought. Then she just shrugged but moving her wing caused her to cry out again and fall against the sleeping bag twitching. Noland sighed to himself and looked up when he felt a pair of eyes on him. He looked up at May with a questioning look.

"I was just wondering... what are you doing in Hoenn?" she asked.

There's a Battle Frontier here as well I was checking up on the Battle Factory. I was just heading back home when my plane broke down. looks at burning wreck But she won't be flying any time soon I bet," Noland said cheerily.

May nodded and turned back to Angel who was asleep now, twitching as she dreamt. The others put Angel properly in her sleeping bag but numbed her wing with Articuno's Ice Beam before trying it. Then they all went about their business, Jake and Jimmy playing cards while May and Rebekah played Twister with Bulbasaur spinning the arrow and showing them the result. Noland however just sat with the Articuno and watched over Angel as she slept peacefully. Hours later May started a camp fire and Jimmy made some snacks for everyone. Rebekah had ran to Verdanturf and bought a bag of popcorn which had to be heated to be 'popped'. She took a sachet out of the bag and held it in her hand. A popping noise was heard from it and twenty seconds later she gave out popcorn to everyone, including Noland. He had lost all his supplies when his plane crashed and he had set about trying to fix it after eating. Days went by and each day Angel's wing got better and each day Noland's plane was slowly repaired. On the fourth day Angel was talking to Articuno when Noland yelled, "I GOT IT!". His plane was fixed and ready to fly. Angel stopped him however before he got in.

"You said that this Articuno is wild right?" she asked. "Then I wish to battle it to try and capture it."

Noland looked into Angel's deep red eyes and nodded slowly, then smiled.

"Whaddya say Articuno? Want to be this girl's pokemon?" he asked.

Articuno gave a cry and Angel drew a pokeball from her belt.

"I thought you'd say that," she said with a grin. "Let's go Ying!"

Ying, Angel's Absol, burst into existence and looked in surprise at the Articuno and then at Angel. Then it looked back at it's target with a wolfish grin.

"Ying use Thunderbolt!" Angel cried.

The scythe on Ying's head glowed yellow and a bolt of lightning shot out and struck Articuno, not taking off much health, and managed to paralyse her. Angel grinned but gasped when Articuno used Ice Beam and froze Ying solid. She sprayed an Ice Heal over Ying and the ice melted leaving Ying soaked to the bone.

"Use a second Thunderbolt!" Angel called.

This time the electricity spread right through Ying thanks to the water and caused the bolt to be about 5 times as big and as strong. The bolt cause Articuno to be fully paralysed and badly weakened. Angel knew it was now or never. She pulled an Ultra Ball from her pocket and maximised it.

"Ultra Ball go!" she yelled as she hurled it.

The ball struck Articuno before shaking all over the place. Everyone held their breath as they watched the ensuing tension. Angel glared at it as if daring it to open again. It shook again, twice, three times and then... clicked shut.

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**My longest chapter yet and I say that it's a good one apart from the two songs but it passes time and you get the lyrics! Well flame or praise it doesn't matter much just review please and make me happy! Bye for now!**


	6. Chapter 6: Molten

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any copied materials... or pokemon.**

_**To readers:**_

_**This story has more hits than "Together Forever" but that story has over 100 reviews! Mind you a pokemorph story is more popular. Just remember to review so that I'll update more. And thanks for all your support people! I now have a sprite sheet of all 5 heroes and when it's on the internet I'll tell you all. I think it looks damn cool for a first try! Oh and a new bad guy will appear in this chapter. Anyway on with the chapter...

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**_

**Chapter 6: Molten**

Angel walked over to the Ultra Ball with small, nervous steps. Shakily she picked up the ball and from it she could feel the cold. To her it was warm and she knew that she wasn't dreaming. Happiness erupted from Angel and despite a sore wings she burst from her cast and shot into the air with a cry of triumph. Jake, Jimmy and the others cheered and clapped for the brilliant capture but Noland knew that Articuno was only caught because she wanted to go with Angel. He grinned and May gave him a large smile. Just then there was a clang and Noland turned back to his plane, realising that it could fly. He waved goodbye to the four on the ground and took off, flying next to Angel. She let out Articuno and together the three flew far away before Angel and her Articuno turned around, waving goodbye to Noland. Angel returned Articuno and landed lightly on the ground next to Jake who she hugged in delight. Jake went red and made choking noises to show a lack of air and Angel released him.

"Umm... it was a twitch," she said explained.

"Real smooth Angel..." May exclaimed. "Real smooth."

Angel went redder still and beckoned everyone to follow her. While walking Jake was feeding his Feebas the blue pokeblocks he had. Feebas was enjoying them and looking at everyone nervously while eating. No one noticed how ragged and frayed it was and so it calmed slightly and continued eating. After eating it's way through 14 Jake set it down and tied a Blue Scarf around it's neck. Angel smiled and called for a halt to watch. May and her Beautifly started playing poker with Jimmy, Rebekah and Jake stroked Feebas' rough scales and Angel seemed to meditate. In reality Angel was straining her mind to remember her past. She only had a month and a half of memories with people and she was upset that she didn't know more. She saw a flash in her mind... she looked closer. It was a flash of a girl crying in a corner. She looked familiar to Angel but the image was gone as quickly as it had come.

"YESSS!"

Angel's eyes snapped open and she turned to Jake who was standing over a glowing Feebes. All that was seen was a white silhouette and it was already changing. Pokemon evolution was a beautiful thing to watch and this was no different. The form warped from a fish into a serpent and the glow faded. Antennae rose from a horned head and eyes with long eyelashes opened to see the world. A scaled tail with a beautiful fin rose and flicked around slightly.

"Milotic..." May said in wonder.

Jake grinned goofily and hugged his new pokemon happily. Milotic pulled the Blue Scarf off it's (ahem... from on now it's a female) neck and gave it to Jake who used it to wipe the tears of joy from his eyes. Rebekah sniggered and all of the group went over to pat the beautiful pokemon before them. May entered the data on her pokedex and Jake returned Milotic with his congratulations.

"Well where're we headed next?" Jimmy asked suddenly.

"Mt Chimney..." Angel said quietly.

"What?" Jake asked.

Angel looked up.

"We're going to Mt Chimney!" she exclaimed.

"Alright! I can get a Torkoal!" Jimmy declared.

He raced ahead down the route towards Fallarbor and tripped on a stick on the path in front of a red and white haired boy. Angel's eyes sharpened as she laid eyes on the guy who'd appeared from nowhere. The person had long jeans and a leather jacket on that was a reddish-brown in colour. The boy helped Jimmy to his feet and after some talking they both walked back to the group. Jimmy was grinning a little and the boy remained impassive. Angel was now seriously alarmed and a bead of cool sweat popped down her forehead. She never felt like that unless...

"GET DOWN!" she screamed.

Angel and the others ducked as the boy shot a stream of fire from his mouth, singing Angel's coat. She threw the mentioned item off and took to the skies. The boy threw off his jacket and unfolded pale wings that had flames on them. His hair swayed as if they were flames as well and he took off after Angel with cinders falling like snow. Everyone left on the ground was now extremely worried.

"I'm going after them!" Jake cried.

He transformed into a Zapdos and chased after the obvious Moltres-morph and Angel. Angel flew as fast as she could while dodging blasts of fire from the murderous person after her. The guy wasn't letting up and taunted her as they both flew through the air.

"Team Rocket sends their love Experiment 001!" he sneered.

"Just who the fuck are you!" Angel cried in hatred.

"I am Experiment 003 also known as Ross!" the boy exclaimed.

Angel spun in the air and used an Ice Beam from her hand to try and freeze the fool solid. Ross countered with a Flamethrower from the mouth. The beam was eradicated by the fire and the attack struck Angel hard. She fell from the air and hit the ground hard, making a deep crater in the ground. Ross dived into it and made it even deeper as he slammed into Angel's chest, bruising her and cracking a rib. He opened his mouth and flames filled his lungs and mouth. Angel began to sweat profusely as she thought of a plan to get away. Through the flames Ross managed to say a final message to Angel.

"Goodbye Angel... see you in hell!"

Angel glanced over his shoulder and grinned.

"No after you!" she exclaimed.

With all her strength Angel kicked upwards and sent Ross hurtling into the air. Jake (in Zapdos mode) then clipped his wings with a mighty Thunder attack followed up with a Drill Peck to the head. The Team Rocket bred villain fell to the earth with a crash and landed near Angel who was standing now. Ross just climbed out of the hole and brushed himself down. He spread his wings to fly but electricity rippled through them and he realised that his wings were paralysed. He sneered at Angel.

"I guess you don't know much about hand-to-hand fighting!" he declared.

Angel tilted her head and tried to figure out what he meant. Then a fist connected with her cheek and she sailed into a nearby tree, knocking it over. She bounced to her feet and ran at Ross with incredible agility and did an uppercut that sent him into the air were he was Slammed by Jake as a Dragonite again. Rebekah, Jimmy and May then arrived at the scene after running the entire distance that Angel had travelled. Rebekah jumped into the air and roundhouse kicked Ross into a huge oak tree that groaned and shook before slowly falling. Jimmy eased the moment with some humour.

"Timber!" he yelled.

Angel tried to laugh but she didn't even get to open her mouth as an Overheat blast shot through the tree's leaves and washed over her. Thermal claws tore at Angel and near eradicated her clothes. Her shirt was in tatters and her bra was charred black. Her red trousers had suffered but were still wearable but her skin had suffered huge burns and she fainted from sheer pain. May gasped at her ravaged state and ran at the blazing oak tree in a fit of rage. She leapt over the burning branches and pulled a pokeball from her belt.

"Wartortle come on out!" she cried.

Ross got up and glared at the turtle and May with an evil glint in his eyes. May didn't back down and called out a command that made him widen his eyes in fear.

"Hydro Cannon that son of a bitch!" May yelled.

Wartortle blew a huge jet of ocean blue energy at Ross who couldn't muster enough defense and was blown into the air and sailed into the horizon. May cheered and jumped the dieing flames to the others who were cheering even louder. Jimmy was hugging Rebekah who returned the hug happily while Jake held hands with a charred, cheering Angel. The Hydro Cannon had also put out the fire on the tree and May did a small bow to her friends. After getting together the five did a thorough check-up on Angel. At one point Jake and Jimmy had to turn around and they had a good laugh as their hormones toyed with their imaginations. After the check-up May summed up that Angel had to go to a hospital.

"WHAT!" Angel shrieked. "I am not going to no hospital! They have needles and clippers and everything evil there!"

"Do they have a Rocket Grunt there?" Jimmy asked sarcastically.

Angel cuffed him on the head which felt like being hit with a block of wood. Jimmy groaned and decided to stay quiet for want of personal health. Jake sniggered at his misfortune and Rebekah put Jake in a headlock, scuffing his hair with her knuckles. This proved to be a dumb idea as her wrists set Jakes hair ablaze and he had to turn into a Wooper to turn the fire off. He then reverted to normal with hair intact and a livid expression on his face.

"That was so not funny!" he yelled.

Rebekah looked hurt and began to tear. Jake fell for her ploy and gave her a hug. May winked at her as she hugged Jake back, stealing his wallet at the same time. Jake sighed when he realised his wallet was missing and turned to May who had been relatively quiet.

"A little help maybe?" he asked.

"Well ok then," May replied quietly.

Angel picked up on May's depression from 50m away washing herself in a river. After the soot and dust was washed off she got out, dried herself in a thermo-blanket before the water on her froze and put her coat on. Unfortunately it was all she could wear, save her jeans so she did up the zip. Checking herself in Jake's pocket mirror she went back to the group and sat down on the rock May was sitting on.

"What's the matter May?" Angel asked.

"Why would Team Rocket send a pokemorph after you? And why is he trying to kill you?" she asked in concern. Then she added, "Oh and Rebekah! Give Jake his wallet back!"

Rebekah threw Jake his wallet and then started playing poker with Jimmy. Jake started exercising and Angel pondered May's question. As she thought she had another flash. This time it was an older girl getting beaten by a man in a dark room. Angel heard a scream in her mind and opened her eyes screaming. She clutched her head and crumpled to the ground, everyone rushing to her. She stopped screaming and bolted her eyes open, breathing heavily. Cold sweat ran down her face and she wiped at it with her sleeve before standing up. She acted like nothing had happened but May and the others just stared at her relentlessly. Angel sighed and knew she had to tell them.

"It's my memory. I think it's coming back," she explained.

Rebekah frowned in thought while Jimmy scratched at the back of his neck. Jake however sat next to Angel and put an arm around her shoulders.

"Wanna talk about it?" he asked.

"I-I... I don't... ok," Angel mumbled. "I see dark places. Miserable places were no one wants to go, where children are beaten and a little girl being abused."

"Do you see this girl often?" Jake persisted.

"Yeah. But I don't..." Angel started. "Oh god. It's me!"

Angel slumped her head as if in defeat and Jake held her close. Angel shook slightly and Jake knew she was crying, which was rare for Angel. He whispered comforting words to her and Angel pulled herself together after a few minutes. She looked up into Jake's deep, warm black eyes and smiled. Jake winked and he stood up, stretching. His arms grew to about 10m in length and he cracked the joints in his neck for relief.

"Why do you do that?" May asked suddenly.

"Do what?" Jake asked back.

"Stretch and crack your joints. It's creepy," May said with a shudder.

Jake turned on his waist and went a full 360 degrees with cracks of varying intensity. May winced at each one and Jake grinned. He spun back round and sat back down after loosening up.

"Well it helps me move easier," he replied to May.

May nodded and gave him a weak smile but her heart wasn't in it and Jake knew that he'd upset her. He sighed and stared at his long, thin fingers and clenched them, hearing the pops as them creaked in their sockets.

"Ok May I'll stop," he said finally.

"Thanks," May replied.

"Anyway aren't we going to Mt Chimney!" screamed Jimmy.

Rebekah stood next to him grinning at the others spooked expressions. They stood up and packed their things away while the two watched. Jimmy suddenly got a devious idea and whispered in Rebekah's ear.

"Did you know that Jake and Angel like each other?" he whispered. "Well they think that the other won't like them so they don't say anything. Why don't we play match-maker?"

Rebekah grinned and gave Jimmy a high-five. After which the other three had finished and the entire group set off for the distant Mt Chimney. May gossiped with Rebekah and Jake chatted with Jimmy as they walked. Angel however had a problem. She was a legal pokemon trainer but had no pokedex and so had no place to store her spare pokemon. Her Ultra Ball containing Articuno was safe in her bag but she felt like she was breaking some kind of law and it mad her uneasy. They continued to walk through Mauville and headed up the north route (I forget which one) and stopped in front of two huge boulders blocking the path.

"Well now what?" Jimmy asked.

Jake transformed into a Bagon and with a single Headbutt he smashed one of the rocks into pebbles. He reverted to his human form and stumbled dizzily around. May looked confused at his behaviour.

"I thought that Bagon's 'Rock Head' ability prevented recoil damage?" she asked aloud.

"Jake's never quite gotten the hang of changing into Dragon pokemon," Angel explained for everyone. "That's how he broke his wrist."

everyone excluding Angel laughed and continued up the path to the intersect with the desert. They could have gone straight to Fallabor but the sandstorm was too vicious to let them through. All the while they continued talking.

"But now it's better than ever!" Jake yelled, stretching his arm to incredible lengths for emphasis.

Angel laughed and everyone looked at her. She had rarely laughed and they found the moment to be quite cute... Well Jake did at least. Angel finished laughing and matched Jake's stride, putting an arm around his shoulders for comfort. Jake smiled warmly and gazed deeply into her beautiful crimson eyes.

"I'll protect you Angel. From that Moltres-morph and Team Rocket. I'll protect you no matter what," Jake vowed.

There was silence and Jake looked up to find the group surrounded by a pack of Mightyena. He groaned silently.

"But who'll protect the protector?" he asked rhetorically.

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**End of chapter. Well thoughts and questions? You know where to put them. And I'm gonna make a poll for maybe some OutOfStory chapters like: Rebekah's First Christmas or The Hoenn Valentine Massacre. People vote yes or no in there reviews and I'll tally them in two chapters time. So make sure you say something to me. But for now I'll leave you all to do whatever it is you're doing. Ciao!**


	7. Chapter 7: A New Rival, A New Friend

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon... period.**

**Okay from now on I'm just gonna talk here while my new muse will fill you in on any news that you need to hear or not. Guess who it is?**

**Angel: Yup it's me :XD: And thanks for all the positive reviews!**

**That's right Angel. Anyway enough with the jabbering on and on I'm just gonna write this thing and go back to bed. yawn Anyway enough of this. Ciao!

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**

**Chapter 7: A New Rival, A New Friend**

Jake quickly assessed the situation. It looked like the Mightyena surrounding them were wild but something about them was off slightly. They looked almost rabid, their tongues lolling in their mouths, their red eyes gleaming madly and their jerky circular pattern of movement around the group. Only May and Angel knew exactly what was wrong with the pokemon but what they knew didn't help their situation at all.

"Pokerus..." May whispered in fear.

Everyone shuddered in fear at the thought of the murderous Mightyena ripping into their flesh. Jake though was unaffected. He knew that the Mightyena couldn't hurt him unless he transformed, which he had no intention of doing. Rebekah warily watched as one Mightyena stepped forward. This was obviously the alpha male of the group. Jimmy gripped Beedrill's pokeball, knowing that Dark-types were weak against Bug-types. Angel had her arms around Jake's neck in fear and Jake was red despite the situation they had found themselves in.

"Well Mr Hero? Protect me!" Angel whispered.

Jake racked his brain to find a suitable form to fight them off in. His first thought was a Crawdaunt but Water moves didn't work _that_ well against these pokemon. He thought to Fighting-types and realized the perfect form in a flash. Well a pink flash to be exact as a 6" 2' Blaziken appeared in his place. The Mightyena paused, only momentarily, before launching themselves at Jake. Two out of the twelve went down in one hit from Jake's hard Double Kick meanwhile Angel led the others to safety across a large river at the edge of the path. Jake was still putting up a good fight but was getting badly hurt at the same time. A Mightyena latched onto his large leg in a Crunch attack while he was Sky Uppercutting another as it tried to Body Slam him. Jake roared in pain and spun on one foot, hitting the Mightyena into three others, knocking all of them out. Another Mightyena was on his back Biting him repeatedly. He fell backwards on purpose and the Biting stopped. Soon the last Mightyena was down thanks to a Blaze Kick and Jake limped to the river. He spotted Angel and the others waving and shouting to him from across it and he turned into a Golduck to swim across. Unfortunately he never made it that far.

Angel wrapped a large towel around Jake as he sat in front of a crackling fire. It was nearing night time again and although Jake had defeated the pack of Mightyena there was still danger of more pokemon attacks. Angel handed some soup in a cup to Jake who thanked her and gratefully took it. Angel sat next to him and watched as he sipped it careful and cursed loudly at how hot it was.

"Ha, ha! That teaches you not to drink boiling soup!" Angel giggled.

May nodded and began telling Jimmy and Rebekah about some of her adventures with Ash and his friends. Angel listened in and out while watching Jake as he sat on the log, sniffing loudly. He had lost consciousness halfway across the river and was carried rapidly downstream by a strong current. Angel had to fly down the river and dive underwater to get him before he ran out of air. Thankfully all he got was a cold. But still Jake was tired from the fight and he yawned blearily before Angel checked his temperature again. Having Jake ill was bringing out Angel's motherly and parental side. Jake was fine with this so long as she--

"Bed time Jake! No arguments," Angel stated firmly.

"I don't wanna go to sleep," Jake whined playfully.

Angel almost lost the will to continue but she pulled herself together and dragged Jake into one of the set up tents. Jake's face was now flushed and he was breathing more heavily. Angel lay him down and just sat next to him, stroking his soft yet wiry hair. Jake closed his eyes and mumbled things under his breath. Angel easily picked them out.

"Read me a story... Don't wanna go to school... So tired," he groaned.

Angel realized that Jake's fever had made him lucid and a bit off key at the moment so decided to leave him be. She got up and was about to leave when Jake grabbed her wrist weakly. She looked into his black eyes and saw desperation in them.

"Please don't leave me..." he croaked. "I don't want to be alone."

Angel gave in to his wishes and sat back down next to him. She studied his face closely and realized that there was a tiny scar shaped like a crescent moon on his left temple. Angel slowly reached out and traced it with a delicate finger and Jake muttered something indiscernible in his sleep. It was going to be a long night in his tent.

May sat contentedly on a large rock staring at the night sky. Rebekah and Jimmy had long since abandoned their poker game and gone to their tents. However May was a bit of a night person and liked to stay awake as long as possible. She hummed quietly to herself as she sat, unaware of time passing. So when Angel sat next to her May got quite a shock and nearly fell over. She smiled weakly and looked to her icy friend.

"I thought you were with Jake," she said with a mischievous grin.

"He fell asleep and I couldn't leave him besides not tired right now," Angel replied indifferently.

May didn't know much about the girl sitting next to her but she was dying to know. When May was with Ash saving Jirachi she had a Wishing Star but had forgotten to make the last wish on time. What she didn't tell anyone was that she was wishing for the chance to help people who needed her. Already proud with beating Harley in the Izabi contest May was quite readily willing to help Angel on her expedition. Suddenly her curiosity burst.

"Is your real name Angel?" May asked.

Angel quirked an eyebrow but tapped her chin thoughtfully.

"As far as I can tell no one knows my real name but because of my appearance," Angel explained holding her wings. "They named me Angel. But I don't care cause Angel is a good name."

May became silent until...

"Why are we after Team Rocket?"

Angel winced and immediately her thoughts trailed to Paul. The man who had given her the chance. The chance for freedom.

"Team Rocket have kidnapped a friend of mine. I'm going to get him back and rid the world of Team Rocket once and for all," Angel said determinedly.

May nodded knowingly and thought to the time Max had been on the run from Team Rocket, protecting a wild Ralts. Knowing a little more satisfied May and she yawned loudly. Angel laughed and May grinned bashfully.

"Well I guess I'd better hit the sack," she said.

Angel nodded and stood up as May entered her tent. When there was silence Angel undid her coat and pulled it off. After rummaging in her bag she found her favorite pale blue tube top and slipped it on. It was loose but short so it exposed her navel but Angel didn't mind. It also came with the holes in the back for her wings to slip through and after a bit of fiddling she spread her wings wide and took off silently. Up in the air Angel was free to let out her feelings. Sometimes she cried out her sorrow or flew as fast as she could to express her joy. But for today she assumed the lotus position while hovering. Sometimes Angel meditated in hopes of finding new memories. The ones she had found already were less than pleasant. Hell, in one of them she was being beaten. Angel breathed deeply and washed out all thoughts and senses. After a while of soul searching Angel saw Jake fighting the Mightyena again. But this time he was in his normal form, bloody and bruised. The Mightyena laughed and spoke in plain English.

"_Fool. Do you really think you can stop us?"_ it sneered.

"I fight because I choose to. No one will hurt my friends so long as I'm around!" Jake declared.

Angel felt the need to hug her friend but she reminded herself that this was just a dream. Then the image changed again. Angel saw herself attached to a wall by heavy black manacles, unconscious. Jake was in the same predicament but he was struggling against them with all his might. A rocket walked into the dark room and laughed at Jake's vain attempts. A shock ran through the metal and Jake screeched in pain and slumped against the wall. Angel watched as the Rocket then began to beat her and violate her as Jake watched in horror. There was a snapping sound and Jake's eyes turned a blood red, his pupils diamond shaped, that would've sent shivers down Angel's spine had she not been used to her own red eyes. With an inhuman roar Jake pulled at the manacles holding him back but the electric surge blew through them and into him. He cried out in pain and Angel now _really_ wanted her dream to end but there was no such luck. The dream-Jake roared again but this one was almost feral. He began pulling once more and a crack appeared in the stone wall. More and more appeared until Jake ripped the section with his bonds clean off the walls themselves. His muscles stood out like thick ropes and his breathing was heavy and brutal. The Rocket whimpered as Jake glared him down. With a pop Jake became a Rhydon and blew the chains off. Angel felt tears flowing down her face as she watched Jake advance on the grunt.

_'Stop! Stop! Stop!' _cried her mind.

"Stop!" she cried in reality.

Angel wrenched her eyes open and found a pale Jake standing over her. She looked around and found herself lying in Jake's tent. Jake was watching her carefully and Angel saw pure concern in his eyes. Angel pulled him to her and cried onto his shoulder as Jake unconsciously patted her back.

"Jake. Promise me that no matter what happens to me that you'll never lose control of yourself. Promise me please?" Angel asked after a while.

"Why? What did you see?" Jake asked.

Jake had lived with Angel for over a year and knew when she had seen something. He had always harbored a small crush for the older girl but that crush had grown in proportion until Jake felt that he couldn't live without her.

"I-I saw you... you went crazy... it was horrible," Angel muttered.

"Oh. Well I promise to never go crazy then," Jake said with a grin.

Angel could only laugh at this and she realized that only Jake could make her feel so secure and free to express herself. She gazed wondrously into his coal black eyes. They were so dark yet held such warmth... Angel figured that only Jake could look happy and actually mean it.

(Time reverse about 5 mins)

Rebekah listened as Angel explained about herself to May. She had to admit that Angel had a very mysterious past and that Rebekah wouldn't mind knowing more about it either. Not that she would want to pry but it was interesting to hear about. Although they thought her to be asleep Rebekah couldn't as she could hear Jimmy's snores from the tent right next to hers. It was sweet but unnecessary and this was why Rebekah had red marks around her eyes and a bad temper. She then heard May go to her tent and peeked out of her own. What she saw made her go back inside and fall asleep instantly from shock. She just decided to pretend that seeing Angel topless was part her soon to be dreams.

(In the morning. Next day)

The sun shone through the clearing like a candle in the dark, blinding all who were foolish enough to open their eyes. May and Jimmy were the first out of the tents and did the job of making a fire and collecting water. May had volunteered for the water job and while she walked she let out her Eevee to keep her company. The pup immediately smiled and sniffed at May's heels.

"Hi Eevee! How are you today?" May asked kindly.

"Eevee! Eevee!" barked the pup.

May just smiled widely and put her hands in her pockets. Something rustled... Curious, May took out what she had gripped and gasped. It was the Balance Badge Ash had won off of her father! With it was a slip of paper and May unfurled it. Ash's familiar scrawl was upon it and May read. It said:

_Dearest May, _

_I wrote this some time ago knowing that you would one day leave us... leave me. I just wanted to say that I consider myself the luckiest guy on earth to have met you. Hopefully this badge will let you know how much I care for you. We'll see each other again soon. xAshx_

_PS: The Hoenn League is only 3 months away. I'll need the badge back _;)

May felt tears slowly creeping out of her eyes and wiped them hurriedly away. After filling the many water bottles she had from the nearby river she walked slowly back to camp, Eevee following at her heels.

Jake awoke with a start and looked around him. Good he was in his tent... It was just another nightmare. He looked left and froze in surprise. Angel was lying next to him, deep asleep. Jake went red remembering last night and tried to leave quietly. But a sharp pain erupted through his head and he growled in surprise. One of Angel's eyes opened instantly, thinking the Mightyena were back. However when she saw Jake she yelped. His eye's were red again, just like in the dream. Except this time it wasn't deep seated fury... it was animal. Jake stopped growling and smiled toothily at Angel who shifted backwards toward the tent opening.

"Hello Angel. You're looking very delectable this morning," Jake said deeply.

Angel's eyes widened, knowing the real meaning behind the words. With a scream she threw herself backwards and out of the tent just as Jake leaped at her. With her wings spread she flew up a good 30ft before stopping. Jake looked at her hungrily and shrugged. A pink flash and he was a Flygon. But this time his eyes were unchanged, and as red as ever. He took of and his vibrating wings made a shrill ringing noise that made Angel clutch her ears in agony. Down below everyone else was awake. May and Jimmy were looking up at them in astonishment and Rebekah was pulling her hiking boots on. Angel remembered Rebekah telling her that she liked to cook and didn't like getting her hands dirty when she could help it. So most of her fighting prowess was in her feet.

"Stay back Rebekah!" Angel cried as she dodged Jake. "Jake's infected!"

Rebekah gulped in fear and stopped. May however was slowly reaching into her bag and pulling out something. By now Jae had grabbed Rebekah and turned into his human form, but with plain feathery wings. A Ditto could alter it's entire atomical structure and it looked like Jake could do almost anything with himself. Jake licked Angel's neck and Angel repressed a shudder.

"It's breakfast time!" Jake whispered venomously.

Angel whimpered and nearly dropped Jake when he slumped unconscious. She looked down and saw May holding a sniper rifle. Angel flew lower and landed, Jake sprawling onto the ground. May flashed a grin at Angel and wordlessly shoved some tranquilizer darts into her hand. Angel looked at them and nearly exploded.

"These things can take down a Tyranitar! Are you trying to kill Jake!" she screamed.

"Actually they're for pokemon with volatile conditions like Pokerus... Jake should be fine in about an hour. The antidote in there is like 20 trips to the pokemon center," May explained hurriedly.

Angel was still skeptical but left May alone... for the time being. Her thoughts unbiddenly turned to the Moltres-morph that had tried to kill her. She shuddered in fear at the fire he could use and became angry at herself for being afraid. She wouldn't let him frighten her anymore. From now on she had a new rival in life and she wasn't going to let him get away. Especially as he was with Team Rocket...

"Uhh Angel? What're you doing?" Jimmy asked.

Angel blinked and looked at her hands. They were glowing a dark blue and orbs of the same blue light surrounded them. Angel felt a rush of knowledge and understanding flood her mind and she threw her fist at a tree. The orb formed a pulse of the blue energy and struck the tree, exploding like a huge water balloon.

"Water Pulse..." Angel murmured to herself. "Well I'll be!"

Rebekah looked at Angel expectantly and Angel shrugged at her. Then it clicked.

"Oh! Sorry... I guess I just never realized I could do that," Angel said.

"Neither did I..."

Angel and the other three turned as a soaking wet boy walked out from behind the tree and looked at Angel, her wings clearly obvious. Angel winced and stepped up to the boy. He was slightly taller than her and was handsome in a classical way. He had white hair (sound familiar?) and wore a Hoenn pride outfit. He also had a green sweatband around his head. A Natu perched jauntily on his shoulder.

"My name's Brendan. Brendan Birch..." the boy said, extending his hand.

"I'm Angel. This is May, Jimmy, Rebekah, and er... Jake," Angel said pointing out each of her friends.

"Oh May it's good to see you!" Brendan said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same thing Gramps!" May said rudely.

"Still as sharp as ever," muttered Brendan.

"Still as old as ever!" May replied.

Jimmy, Rebekah and Angel watched this display for a few minutes until Rebekah pulled out her playing cards. It was gonna be another long day...

* * *

**Done and dusted after a long while sorry. But Brendan's here now so it's gonna be okay!**

**Angel: Yeah! I know that Brendan and May belong together so now everyone has someone!**

**Uhh...**

**Angel: Read and review! **

**The next chapter is an OOS chapter about Rebekah's first Christmas. Read it!**


	8. Chapter 8: It's Christmas Time!

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: Don't own pokemon or any other anime character components... **

**_More drabble:_**

_**Angel: Yay! New chapter!**_

_**Yup... I enjoyed the last one but this one is special.**_

_**Rebekah: Yeah! It's centered around me!**_

_**Where'd you come from?**_

_**Rebekah: I was bored... (O.- ) **_

_**Whatever! Well anyway let's get his over with!**_

_**Rebekah and Angel: New chapter! New chapter! New chapter! Ne-**_

_**SHUT UP! **_

**Chapter 8: It's Christmas Time!**

Jimmy and the others in their gang (Brendan included) looked over the sprawling city of Slateport from the Cycle Path. A half of them: Angel, Jimmy and Brendan, had Mach Bikes while the other three: Jake, May and Rebekah had Acro Bikes. The woman in Mauville was right! Rydel _was _a very generous man. It had snowed recently and Angel was wearing a t-shirt, casual jeans, her usual black trench coat and a pair of sandals on her feet. To her it was warm and pleasant but the other five were less than happy. Well Jake seemed to have a resistance to cold so he didn't complain but May was moaning all the way. What excited them all though was that Christmas was tomorrow! Angel, being secretive had already gotten her friends their gifts and stored them in her PC at the Pokemon Center but everyone else was checking their credit cards. Jimmy was the most worried though.

_'What can I get Rebekah to show that I like her?'_ He thought desperately. _'And I don't have that much money...'_

The group disembarked from the Cycle Path and headed south. May was tempted to try the Trick Master's house again but Brendan dragged her away much to her displeasure. She pouted and went to calling him Frosty for fun. Though Brendan didn't mind this he was also annoyed. He didn't know what to get May either... The only ones who did were Jake, May, Rebekah and of course Angel. As they left the Cycle Path they began to see other people out for their shopping. Thankfully Angel's wings were hidden under her enormous coat so no one gave them a second glance. Once Jake had actually tried the coat on and was shocked when he found out it weighed 40 kilograms. It was specially weighted so that Angel had more stamina for flying. (Imagine Captain Dilan Hunt from "Andromeda". I've met Kevin Sorbo!) It was almost as if he was standing on the surface of Saturn, he felt so heavy.

"Hey Angel..." Jimmy asked from nowhere. "What does it feel like to have wings?"

No one else but our heroes were around so Angel gave the question some thought.

"Hmm... That's a good question. I suppose the only way to describe it is that you feel like your completely free. To go where you want and do what you please. The sky's the limit, to coin a phrase," she replied with a smirk.

Jimmy looked impressed with this answer. Soon the group had entered the northern gates of the large Slateport City. Rebekah could see ships and cruisers arrive and depart from the port to the east and Jake watched the stalls just up from the beach as people set up Christmas themed shops. There was only one thing left to do...

"SHOPPING SPREE!" May screamed.

"But Ma- Ahhhh!" cried Brendan as he was dragged away from the others. "Help!"

Jake and Angel laughed hard while Jimmy stood nervously next to Rebekah who was just as nervous. Jimmy knew one thing about Angel that no one else did but what he knew upset him greatly. Rebekah had never celebrated Christmas before...

"Well what should we do?" Rebekah asked.

"How about w-" began Angel. "OH MY GOD! There's an ice sculpture contest on today!"

Everyone in our little team knew how much Angel loved ice. Hell she had the Ice Affinity (that means that she almost completely understands any Ice type pokemon)! As Angel ran off to sign up Jake spotted a small yet merry little store for his shopping and disappeared as well. Only Jimmy and Rebekah were left. A cold breeze blew through the air and Jimmy shivered slightly.

"Cold?"

"Yeah..."

Rebekah took his hand and Jimmy felt a warm heat spread through his entire body. Any one who looked closely would see that Rebekah's sleeve was glowing slightly. Jimmy smiled warmly at Rebekah and grabbed her hand. With a squeak of surprise Rebekah allowed herself to be dragged off with Jimmy who was determined that she have fun. First he bought her some hot chocolate from a vendor and they walked through a park, while sipping their drinks. In the distance Rebekah saw figures of people going up and down unusually high. Intrigued she tried to look closer but it was misty and she couldn't see well.

"Hey Jimmy? What's that?" she asked.

Jimmy squinted through the haze and grinned.

"It's a trampoline. It's like a sheet attached to a frame with springs. People jump on it to bounce around. It's a fun thing..." he explained.

"Oh... Can we try?" Rebekah asked with a cute smile.

"Okay," Jimmy said, unable to resist.

They drew closer and the boys on the trampoline looked at Rebekah haughtily. Jimmy knew their type. The kind of people who thought that girls were inferior. Already Jimmy was annoyed with the ruffians as they mock fought on the trampoline. One of them back-flipped off but mis-landed and fell on his back, winded. Jimmy snorted in amusement while Rebekah went into pearls of laughter. Suddenly the air was silent.

"Think that's funny do ya? I wouldn't laugh at one of us I wouldn't!" one of the boys said angrily.

Rebekah considered this a challenge and in a single leap was on the trampoline.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

One kid, with spiky, raven-colored hair stepped up to her. This guy was obviously the leader of the little band of thugs.

"I bet you couldn't hurt a Beautifly!" he sneered.

Rebekah just back-flipped without so much as bending her knees and landed gracefully on her feet as she touched down without a sound. At the same time she had lightly kicked the leader in the chest with a foot. The kid was not so cocky anymore as he paled slightly and glanced at one of his friends.

"Okay you have some skill... Get her!" he yelled.

Jimmy grinned to himself. Time to see if Rebekah really was nick-named "Crimson". There were six thugs in all and each of them were around Rebekah with fists raised. Rebekah laughed openly at them.

"I bet I could beat all of you without getting hit once and without using my hands!" she said mockingly.

Jimmy sweat-dropped as the leader tried punching her. Rebekah ducked backwards as if in a limbo contest and kicked the boy right off the trampoline with a booted foot. Then three more were at her and she did an incredible move in Jimmy's eyes. Using her hands she spun like a top upside-down and used her legs to kick each one of the boys. Then with a bounce she was on her feet. But a sneaky one grabbed her from behind and tried pinning her arms. Rebekah rolled her eyes and head-butted the ruffian. He was out cold before he fell off the trampoline.. Now there was only one guy left and he did what most others would do in his position. He ran...

Jimmy was in hysterics about Rebekah's fight and couldn't form a single word until they reached the Pokemon Center. Finally he spoke to her after calming down considerably.

"That was amazing Rebekah! I couldn't have even tried to do that as gracefully!" he exclaimed proudly.

Rebekah blushed from the praise and walked through the sliding doors into the Center. May and Jake were sitting right next to the fire and Angel was nowhere to be seen. However Brendan was asleep in one of the armchairs so everyone had to move quietly. The two looked up and greeted their friends.

"Got your shopping done then?" Jake asked wearily.

Rebekah and Jimmy shared a look before dashing outside again. After at least three hours of searching Rebekah had bought her gifts and Jimmy had one more to find... Rebekah's. He searched and searched for the perfect gift but couldn't find a thing. His search took him to the beach at the south and while walking he heard crunches underneath his feet. Thinking he stood on glass he picked up his foot and almost fell over in surprise. It was a whole bunch of Red Shards! Jimmy grinned and collected as much as he could before heading back to the Center and beginning his work. Inside the lobby all were asleep save Angel who was a night bird (pardon the pun). She watched curiously as Jimmy entered silently and sat next to the fire. His back was to her but Angel heard the tinkling of what sounded like glass and crackles from the fire. Jimmy sat there and tinkered with something for about an hour and after a few curses he finally stood up. With his back still to Angel he grabbed some wrapping paper and placed a tiny present underneath the Christmas tree the group had set up in the corner. Not worrying about it much Angel dozed off again, to comfortable to be bothered getting up, and smiled as she felt the 1st place medal around her neck.

Jimmy sat next to the fire and stared at it. Granted he didn't do it often but then again he didn't really notice how fires had actually looked. They were... powerful, yet innocent, yet beautiful and merry. They were deep and mysterious in how they flickered and crackled. Jimmy was strongly reminded of Rebekah and smiled at his small gift under the tree. It had taken time but he thought it was perfect. Now all that remained was to go to sleep. Letting Typhlosion out Jimmy sat in an empty armchair and let his pokemon curl up at his feet. Silently the pair went to sleep, sweet dreams swimming through their tired minds.

It was just past seven o'clock when May woke up. All the others were asleep so May, becoming devious, decided to play a small prank. She silently reached into her hip pack and brought out a full air-horn canister. It was usually used to attract attention in case she was in trouble but this morning it had a different function. She giggled quietly and tiptoed to the middle of the armchairs. Raising the horn she depressed the button but instead of the usual ear-shattering squeal there was no sound. May looked up and saw that the nozzle was encased in ice. Angel stood up and shook her head at May. Angel then pulled an even bigger air-horn from her backpack and May grinned evilly. Covering her ears Angel pressed the button and the wail w made everyone wake up screaming in shock. Jimmy actually fell off his chair and onto Typhlosion who barked in surprise. After the chaos ended everyone was awake, save Jake who had somehow covered his ears. Angel knelt next to him and whispered in his ear. This time Jake seemed to hear but was still asleep. Satisfied Angel walked to the furious others and watched. Suddenly Jake began to sleep talk.

"Wha-? Where are we? What! Angel! Oh m- Let her go now!" Jake mumbled.

Angel sweat-dropped as everyone began to listen closely. All Angel had said to Jake was "Hiya Jake!" She had no idea that he would've been so affected.

"Dammit! Come back here! ANGEL!" Jake screamed, awakening with a start.

Angel could've sworn that as he sat up his eyes glowed a frightful yellow color but when she looked again they were their customary black. After Jake had calmed down and everyone was wide awake the group focused their attention on their Christmas Tree. Angel, being smart, had everyone draw straws and the order of opening gifts went as: May, Jake, Brendan, Angel, Jimmy, Rebekah. Jimmy smiled at his good fortune and saved his present for last. May sat on an armchair and picked up the pile of gifts marked 'May'. She picked up Angel's and ripped apart the wrapping to reveal... a beautiful light blue scarf with white diamonds patterned over it. Angel explained that it would also raise a Pokemon's beauty in contests as May thanked her. Only Jake knew that the scarf was hand-made by Angel herself. Next was Jimmy's gift... the auto-biography of Jack Johnson, the world's greatest coordinator. May hugged Jimmy and thanked him for it and sat down again. The next gifts were: a yam from Brendan with a Silk Scarf around it, a pair of Oakley sunglasses from Rebekah, and finally a miniature ice sculpture of May herself made from Nevermeltice from Jake. May thanked all of them (apart from Brendan) and let Jake sit in the chair. Jake received: Metal Powder for his Ditto from Angel, a Light Ball for his Pikachu from May, a promo Ditto card from Brendan, a pair of ice-blue contact lenses from Rebekah (she winks at him), and a custom sweater made from elasticated polymer that could stretch as far as he could from Jimmy. Jake was delighted with all of them and surprised Angel by putting the Metal Powder in a tiny jar on a chain and placing it around his neck. The pink in his hair darkened because of the Metal Powder showing that he had more resistance to any kind of attack. Brendan then sat in the Pressie Chair (as May dubbed it) and picked up his gifts: an expensive Rolex watch from Jake, a handbook for grooming pokemon from Rebekah, a new pair of wristbands from Angel, a chain with dog tags from Jimmy, and from May he received... a plush doll of himself. Around the doll's neck was a name-tag that said 'Brandon'. May blushed and mumbled about how long it took her to make. Brendan shocked her by hugging her and letting Angel sit in the chair. Angel, who was new to Christmas, was unsure at first but got into it quite quickly. She received: Cam foil for her wings from May, an alternate trench coat that was snow white with a tinge of blue from Jimmy, a strange light blue rock that Brendan revealed as an Ice Stone, a wing care kit from Rebekah (this made everyone laugh), and best of all... a magnificent blue pendant with a silver snowflake etched on the light blue sapphire. The way it sparkled made Angel's eyes glow with delight. She stood up and embraced Jake tightly but no one else saw what happened as her wings blocked them both from view. However when they lowered Jake was blushing and Angel was giggling lightly. Next was Jimmy's turn and he opened his presents: a Charcoal Amulet from May, a new red and blue cap from Angel, a pair of biking gloves from Jake, a silver and black Pokenav from Brendan and a black belt from Rebekah. Finally it was Rebekah's turn in the chair and she nervously opened her first present while Jimmy took his present, to personally give to her, discreetly. Her first gift was from Jake was a comb for her fiery hair, which was red and yellow to be just as fiery. Rebekah hugged Jake in thanks and opened her next present. This one was a pokeball that she opened. Out of it came a tiny baby Cyndaquil and Rebekah named him Jimmy after the boy who gave him to her her. The third was a Rainbow Wing that May had picked up while traveling in Hoenn. Rebekah was almost in tears of happiness when she saw it and hugged May tightly, much to the surprise of everyone. The fourth was just as good, a special edition, hard back copy of the book "A Child Called It". Brendan was also hugged but unfortunately he was forced to nurse burns afterwards. Everyone then turned their gaze to Jimmy who nervously handed a small box shaped present to Rebekah. She opened it to find that it was a box... intrigued she opened it and gasped in wonder. It was the most beautiful ring that anyone had ever seen. It was silver with a gem that appeared to burn with it's own life and Rebekah could've sworn she saw a Rapidash in the swirls. Shakily, Rebekah tried to put it on her left hand, middle finger but missed twice. A strong yet soft pair of hands grasped hers and guided her hand until the ring was gleaming at her knuckle. Rebekah lifted her gaze to Jimmy's and ,not caring that everyone was watching, kissed him full on the lips. Brendan dog whistled for them while the other three clapped. After the wrapping was cleared away everyone was shocked to find that Jimmy was now out of money. Rebekah demanded to know how much the ring had cost him and he fell silent until...

"It cost him nothing. Jimmy made it himself," Angel declared.

Rebekah was now in tears of happiness for today she knew what it felt like to be loved. Now she wished that today could last forever. But then again, tomorrow was another day with Jimmy and Rebekah wouldn't want to spend her time with anyone else.

**I got a sore back writing this so please review this time. They mean a lot to me... Anyway I'd like to thank my good friend Chantel for inspiring me to write this chapter. So everyone give a big round of applause for friendship!**


	9. Chapter 9: Old Flames

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon... that's all. **

**Well it's time for another chapter I suppose. I'm quite angry while I'm writing this cause my idiot sister keeps trying to put me down. Oh well, no one's perfect. Those who think they are perfect have delusional minds. And she wants everything I do to be perfect? Well screw her!** **Anyway I think I can hear people coming in…**

**Angel: Yeah! No one upsets my friend and gets away with it! (Lights a Water Pulse)**

**Jake: Angel calm down! (Ducks as pulse shoots at him)**

**Oh dear... I'm gonna go and separate them. This might take a while so make yourselves at home and read the chapter. Hope you enjoy it!

* * *

**

**Chapter 9: Old Flames**

It was now coming up for New Year's Eve and everyone in our group of misfits... em, heroes was quite excited. Except perhaps Jake who seemed to not like New Year so much, as it was on New Year's Day that Jake had once fallen into a river as a little boy and had no idea he could change himself into a Water pokemon and swim away, so he ended up being washed all the way into the next town, not needing air as he drifted under the current. Back to our group, they all walked up the route to the summit of the ever impressive Mt Chimney, which was smoking in the distance; a lift car was traveling up the lone wire, leading to the top. No one apart from Angel knew quite why they were going there but trusted their leader's judgment, even if she seemed a little insane. Halfway there the group took a break for an hour, not wanting to be exhausted near so much magma. Rebekah was sitting down and playing solitaire by herself while Jake and Jimmy exchanged childish jokes.

"Hey what other forms can you make?" Jimmy asked.

"What about this?" Jake asked, his face becoming a shrieking mass of such horrifying nightmarish things that even I lose track of what I'm saying.

Jimmy decided it was best if he stayed quiet, not wanting to see that again as he had almost lost his lunch, even with all his impressive self-control. Also May and Brendan had disappeared somewhere so Angel was left alone, to her thoughts. She looked back and saw the long line of skyscrapers that was Mauville City, a thought of her flying between all those pillars of glass and steel making her smile. A light breeze swept through the clearing next to the rocky cliffs that our intrepid explorers sat in, blowing dirt and dust into everyone's eyes, blinding them for a while. Angel and Rebekah both could suddenly hear rocks shifting above them and looked up. Time seemed to stop as a single pebble slipped down the rock face and then the whole thing sagged and started crumbling down.

"RUN!" Angel screamed.

Her white coat flapping, Angel put her shimmering blue wings through the tailor made holes in the back and flapped into the air, a trail of sparkling ice crystals in her wake. Angel looked ahead of her just in time and kicked a rock into gravel before it knocked from the skies. Meanwhile, Rebekah jumped up at least 30 meters right into the air, where she seemed to hang, slowly descending to avoid those suffocating rocks while Jake wrapped one arm around Jimmy, May and Brendan, the latter who had just appeared before the avalanche started. He then stretched his other arm around a solid tree and tried catapulting them to safety. Dust shot up from the ground where the boulders struck and the place became non-navigable for at least five minutes. When the dust finally settled Jake looked up... to see a wall of rock above him, showing that he had not been fast enough. He strained his ears and heard Rebekah and Angel shouting about something above them. Jake groaned and looked at the unconscious three around his arm. Weakened, he let out a feeble call for help and passed out as well.

This was no accident. Someone had tried to kill them all rather viciously. There was only Angel and Rebekah remaining above ground, but Jake and the others were no where to be seen. Angel thought back to when the first pebble had fallen and remembered a flash of red leaving the scene from the ledge where the rocks were before they had fallen. Only one thing came to mind about this, which made Angel quiver in anger and hate. Her eyes narrowed dangerously...

May, Jake and Jimmy were absolutely fine after waking up but the same couldn't be said about Brendan. They didn't even know where he was. While Jake, May and Jimmy were unconscious, and Angel plus Rebekah were clearing the rubble away someone or something had gotten to Brendan, before he was found by anyone. This was not looking good and the day had just started for the teens. May had been crying for her lost friend for almost an hour straight, her tears turning into dry sobs. To pass the time Jimmy and Rebekah were sitting against a tree with Rebekah sitting on Jimmy's lap, her head just under his chin. Angel and Jake were discussing on how to search for their friend and May sniffled on a rock. Just as Angel and Jake stood up the ground at their feet began rumbling. Angel looked up in surprise and her jaw dropped. Molten balls of fire were falling from the sky and smoke was covering up the air above the smoldering volcano in the distance. Mt Chimney was erupting…

Rebekah and jimmy were on their feet and looked at the raging funnel. Jimmy yelled out in surprise and pointed at the top of the inferno. A flame shaping into the form of a bird was visible bursting into the air and circling the mouth of the vent, and Angel began running towards it with death in her eyes. May cried for her to stop but the icy natured girl didn't slow. Jake simply turned into a Dodrio and ran after her, picking her up in his beak as he passed. Rebekah and Jimmy shared a look and Jimmy leapt into the air, landing on a rearing Rapidash. May sighed and pulled a pokeball from her pouch. Granted it wasn't actually her pokemon but she opened the ball and clambered on the creature, squeaking when it shot after her friends.

Brendan awoke feeling rather hot. It was almost like he was on fire. He opened his ruby eyes and saw a circular patch of sky. 'Odd,' he thought. Brendan stood and almost fell over when he saw lava broiling below the outcrop he stood on. He looked up again and then back down, putting two and two together.

"Shit," he mumbled.

Angel reached the side of Mt Chimney and spread her wings to fly. Barely a meter from the side of the volcano she made a rapid ascent and when she reached the top she saw what she had expected from the moment the phoenix had appeared above Mt Chimney. A boy stood on the rim of the volcano, completely at peace. His blond and red hair standing out like a spot on the face of the rock. Angel didn't even bother with the pleasantries and began hurling Ice Beams at the inhuman creation before her.

"As impatient as ever," said a voice behind Angel.

She turned in the air, only to receive a blow to the neck by Ross. She hurled downwards and crashed into the crater's edge. The Moltres-morph dove after her and slammed his open palms into her chest as he crashed downwards. A blow like that could've cracked a rib on a Rhyhorn. Angel screamed in pain and kicked Ross off her. The boy cartwheeled through the air before righting himself, only to be elbowed in the skull by a supremely pissed Angel. Now it was Ross' turn to make a crater in the edge of the volcano. Angel decided to make a joke of this.

"Three holes in the ground," she muttered. "Well, well, well."

As she spoke a ball of fire caught her in the stomach and disintegrated upon contact with her. Though it did quite a bit of damage to Angel. She gasped in pain and shot an Ice Beam at the demon before her only to miss and be punched into the ground again. Ross was disappointed in his rival and target.

"What's the matter Angel?" he asked sarcastically. "Is big scary Ross to hot for you?"

"Bite me!" Angel snapped back.

"Gladly," Ross replied sinisterly.

The mutant dived for Angel only to receive a face-full of water that left his wings soaking. He spluttered and tumbled to the ground. Angel, hands alight, landed in front of him and advanced menacingly. Ross slowly crawled backwards until he reached the lip of the volcano. With a grin he allowed himself to fall backwards and down the vent, into the lava below. Angel gasped and her hand went to her mouth in horror. It wasn't that the evil Rocket was gone it was that Brendan was sitting on a rock outcrop just a meter above the rising lava. Already hating herself Angel dove in and reached Brendan in under a second. Brendan looked at her as if she was a hallucination.

"Well I was expecting May to show up but I guess this'll do," he said distantly.

"Come on..." Angel grabbed him.

A rumble rocked the ground under Angel and a shudder went through the earth. Angel could've sworn she heard a laugh and decided it was time to go. She held Brendan tight and rocketed skywards but she didn't seem to go anywhere as the lava was still right below her. Then she realized that Ross was still alive and trying to kill her once more. She cleared the crater and tossed Brendan into the morning air. Brendan seemed to fly and was caught by a Latios while falling. Jake pulled him up and set him on the ground of the volcano near Angel, who had twisted away from the lava spout just in the nick of time... but not enough time for her left foot. Jake, now human again, almost fainted when he saw the charred, bloody stump that used to be Angel's kicking foot. He did however let out a scream of horror and anguish that he wasn't able to protect her. Angel was nearly unconscious on the ground and laughter was heard as a glowing Ross rose slowly out of the volcano.

"Well, well it looks like the goody-two shoes is now a goody-one shoe!" Ross exclaimed with a bark of laughter. "I'm on fire!"

"About that!" Jake shouted with barely repressed fury. "Chemistry 101! What happens when you super cool hot atoms?"

Ross' eyes widened in time for a Sheer Cold attack from a RegiIce to wash over him. He screamed as a million thermal knives tore into his flesh, searing pain overloading his nervous system. Then it was gone... A stone figure fell from the sky and hit the volcano lip, smashing on contact. Jake watched with disdain as Ross' stone head rolled to his feet. A look of pure terror on the Rocket-bred terrorist's face. Jake grunted and stomped heavily on the rock, reveling in hearing the stone burst into dust.

"And stay dead!" Jake exclaimed dangerously.

Brendan, who had seen it all, had picked up Angel but was surprised when Jake growled at him and took Angel into his arms. Brendan knew there was something wrong with his friend but decided to leave it for his own personal safety. He shuddered when he thought of what Jake would be able to do to a person if angry enough. He shook his head to rid himself of Scizor claws and looked around. There was a whinny and Rebekah the Rapidash with Jimmy riding burst over the lip of the cliff. Soon after May arrived flying on... a Latias!

"What in the hell?" Jake asked.

May leapt off the Eon pokemon and hit the ground hard, making her stumble. Then she saw Angel's foot... or what was left of it. A blood-curdling scream echoed through the air and May fainted from shock. Jake just shrugged and began to pick his way to the Jagged Path that led to Lavaridge. The other four (Brendan carried May) followed and Rebekah questioned a recently awoken May.

"Well? What's with the Latias?" she asked.

May launched into story-mode, forgetting that she was being carried.

"Well I was with Ash and the group when we were in Petalburg. It was really hot and I decided to go to the beach near Old Man Briney's house. Max kept taunting me, saying that I looked too thin in a two-piece bathing suit so I ran off to let out some steam. Down the beach I found Latias by tripping over her cause she was invisible. She was injured and dehydrated so I fed and watered her and tended to her injuries. She showed me her thanks by promising that if I need her help then she'll come," May explained tirelessly.

"Wow..." was all that anyone said.

Then May realized that she was still over Brendan's shoulder.

"Brendan Birch you put me down right now!" May shouted angrily.

Then she wished she hadn't spoke as she ended up face first in the ground. She pulled herself up and glared at Brendan's retreating back. Unfortunately she realized that they were leaving her behind and ran over the boulders and ledges to catch up. When she did she was out of breath and angry but before she could shout they walked into the sunshine just outside Lavaridge. Even from there May could feel the hot spring's heat and ran towards town like a Doduo in a drag race. Jake just steadily marched along with Angel, still unconscious, in his arms bridal-style. After a minute or so they reached the Pokemon Center and the Nurse Joy stationed their cried out in alarm at the state of Angel.

"What happened to her!" the Joy almost yelled.

"Lava... Mt Chimney... fell," was all that Jake said. "Heal her now."

The danger in Jake's voice was unmistakable but even so the Joy still tried to put her point across.

"You know that this isn't a ho-," she began.

"I DON'T CARE! ANGEL IS BLEEDING TO DEATH IN MY ARMS AND YOU RAMBLE ON ABOUT HOSPITALS? GET HER HEALED NOW!" Jake shouted. "YOU'RE A NURSE! IT'S YOUR JOB TO HEAL PEOPLE OR IS THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH NOT APPLYING TO YOU?"

The people in the lobby went deathly silent and the Nurse Joy paled. She called a Chansey and it skipped in, pushing a human sized stretcher for Angel, which Jake gently laid her on. The Chansey then turned and wheeled the stretcher into the Emergency Room. The Nurse Joy watched them go and was about to go in when Jake's iron vice-grip took her shoulder. Nurse Joy froze in fear as Jake leaned in and whispered in her ear.

"You'd better look after her."

"I-I... I'll do what I can," she mumbled sadly.

Jake bowed his head in thanks and when he looked up again his eyes were swimming with tears.

"Please," he said softly. "Just help my friend."

It took an entire day for Angel's operation and even then there was some bad news for Jake when it was over. The Nurse Joy at the Pokemon Center had found out about her being a pokemorph before the operation even began and refused to treat her in case she tried killing the nurse when she woke up… until Jake threatened to eat the nurse before her. He proved his point by turning into a Sharpedo and roaring in Nurse Joy's face, blowing her pair hairstyle apart. Then he found out that Angel's amputated wound had been infected by all the dust that had gotten in it and that Angel wouldn't be able to run properly for the rest of her life. The upside was that the Nurse Joy was able to transplant a Robotic Limb Replacement onto the wound. When Angel woke up and the pain faded she would be able to kick through a brick wall. The artificial foot was covered in skin grafts and when they settled and the foot was attached it blended with the rest of her perfectly. Jake wasn't able to see her until almost 2:00am but he still stayed awake, his Ditto side removing the need for sleep. He sat next to the bed she lay in on a splintery wooden chair and just watched quietly, never taking his eyes off her. Once or twice Angel stirred in her sleep but didn't wake. Jake knew she was having nightmares but didn't dare wake her up. All he did was instead take her hand in his and whisper gently to her.

"I am so sorry Angel. If I had been faster I might have been able to help but I was just too slow..." he whispered sadly. "But I won't let it happen again. I'll never let anything this bad happen to you or any of our friends ever again. I just care for you too much to see you in such pain... because- I love you."

Little did Jake know that he had woken Angel the moment he had begun talking and a single, cold tear slipped out of her closed eye and slid down her face. Her grip on his hand tightened and she opened her ruby eyes, filled with pain and sadness.

"I forgive you Jake. Because I love you too," she whispered.

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**Done and even more done. No where near finished and don't you dare think we've seen the last of the Rocket Hit Squad. Oh no they'll be coming back. With a few more surprises. Review please and tell me what you think.**

**Angel: Yeah review or I'll give you such a kicking!**


	10. Chapter 10: Team Magma, Act1

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon. sob **

**Whassup everyone? I gotta new chapter for all of you!**

**Angel: Yay! New chapter! Kicks down a brick wall Oh yeah! I'm kicking ass!**

**Yeah Angel's been like that for a while. She'll get over it though…**

**Angel: sarcastic yeah right…**

**Whatever… Chapter time! ;)

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**

**Chapter 10: Team Magma… Act 1**

Jake sat in the uncomfortable wooden chair next to Angel's bed in numb shock. The four words she had mumbled echoed through the crevices of his mind, which was a large space to encompass,and overloaded his synapses as his thoughts raced wildly. All he could do in this shocked state was smile widely and kiss Angel on the forehead before standing up to leave, not wanting to disturb her rest. He walked to the door but his hand stopped him at the door frame and he looked back to Angel.

"I'm going to see the others Angel. They're worried about you…" he said, from the doorway he was currently standing under.

Angel tilted her headto the side so that she could look at him. Her smile was the warmest thing on her face, which was saying something considering her Ice-typenature. Jake's smile widened slightly and he gazed wistfully at her weakened state, her feet poking up from beneath the quilt that was draped over her form. It saddened Jake to know of her secret that not even the Ice-Mistress knew of herself.

"Don't be too long,"Angel replied to Jake's previous statement.

Jake grinned and walked quietly out of the ER ward, as he heard Angel's snoring again,and into the waiting room where his four other friends sat worriedly, looking very sorry for their friend and leader. Rebekah and Jimmy were unconsciously holding hands while sitting and May was having a private conversation with Brendan in a corner, seeming to be arguing with him. Jake cleared his throat loudly to get their attentionand they were instantly around him, like a Venomoth to a flame. Out of all of them May seemed to be the most concerned for her newest of friends, Jake knowing how much of a caring girl she was.

"Is Angel gonna be okay?" Brendan asked quickly.

"Yeah and what about her foot... or lack of one?" Rebekah added.

"What are we going to do now?" Jimmy said after that.

"I just hope she's okay…" May mumbled.

Brendan hugged his friend, causing her to blush and push off him, but Jake explained about Angel's condition which stoppedthe fighting. Rebekah was a bit sad about the news but also a tiny bit happy that Angel wouldn't notice the change, knowing that it would depress her friend. Jimmy was just plain upset for his friend, knowing that she liked walking as well as flying, while both May and Brendan were perturbed at this development.

"How will Angel NOT know that one of her feet are fake?" Brendan asked in a confused tone.

"Because it's basically a mechanical but exact replica ofher normal foot so she'll feel from it, stub a toe on it, trip over a little, but also be able to puncturean Aggron's hidewith a kick from it," Jake explained heavily.

"Ohhh," said May and Brendan together.

Rebekah grinned, liking that Angel could be as great a kickboxer as her, but no one noticed the expression. Suddenly there was a loud thud from the ER ward and the whole gang rushed in, panic ensuing. Angel was sprawled on the floor, already getting up quite fast, and lookingreally annoyed about falling off the bed. Her curses indicated that she had been sleeping when she fell.

"Angel! Are you alright?" Jake asked in concern.

Angel smiled when she heard him and looked up, her eyes glowing their bright sapphire colour. Jake raised an eyebrow at her as she walked over and crossed her arms when she stood next to him. Jake looked down at Angel and tapped her on the head but she just shrugged and leaned on his broad shoulder for support, as if nothing had happened. The others didn't notice this as they were bombarding Angel with dumb and loudquestions like, "Did you beat that thing?" and "How did you get Brendan?" and even "My drink's warm can you cool it?" Finally Jake snapped.

"Enough!" he shouted loudly, overcoming the noise from the group.

There was silence… instantly. A surprised Angel looked into her boyfriend's eyes and saw a tinge of redstaining the sea of black.Fortunately she justdismissed it as a trick of the light, but she could almost feel suspicion uncoil in her gut and rise up in her.Angel lookedagain at Jake's eyesand the red was gone from his eyes. She blinked and dismissed the thing completely. Jake calmed down and spoke more clearly and slowly. Everyone listened, fearing another violent outburst like the last.

"I think that Angel should be allowed to get some rest. She's had a rough start so leave her be okay?" he said pointedly.

The others gulped but nodded and Jake pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. The others moved to leave but Jake called them back, indicating that he wasn't done talking. Jake looked tired now but the five listened, incase he had something important to say. Unfortunately this was not to be as he merely said.

"I'm sorry I yelled. I just don't feel to w-.."

Jake cut off and sat heavily in the chair behind him, almost breaking it. May gave him a queer look while Rebekah tensed up, ready for a fight, incase someone had done something to Jake. Jimmy was sitting on the foot of Angel's bed, merely looking at Jake worriedlywhile Angel was at the head of the bed,shaking Jake's shoulder. Brendan however did the smart thing andwas pointing his pokenav at Jake, the scanner taking in all the information it could about the fallen hero. When he pointed it at Jake it started speaking like a pokedex.

"_The closest match, Ditto the Transform pokemon._ _This pokemon's status is set to Sleep." _It said.

Everyone looked at Jake and were surprised to see him slumped in the chair, now clearly asleep. Angel moaned in discomfort and lay back on her pillows again, Jimmy moving out of the way of her feet and he left the room quietly afterwards. The others got the hint and left the room to let the couple sleep peacefully.

(No more fluffiness for now)

It was only in the early hours of the morning next day that Jake woke up. He glanced at his watch and was surprised to see that it was only six in the morning, which was early for him. He glanced at the still snoozing Angel, who was leaving a cold trail of drool on the side of her face and it was pooling on her pillow and freezing over,and carefully stood up. He turned into a Meowth and slowly padded out of the room, pulling the door open with his claws and shutting it with his tail. He came out of the Pokemon Center and sniffed the early morningair eagerly, ready for a workout. As he did so a part of him twitched and he turned to the very near Mt Chimney. Jakelooked around to make sure no one was about and then quickly turned into a Sandslash, scraping his claws on the dirt, testing it's density. The feeling got even stronger when he became the Ground-type and he began burrowing into the volcanic dust and soil. His tunnel led straight back to the Jagged Pass the group had exited yesterdayand into the side of the volcano it came down. It became sweltering inside the ground, as the magma chambers heated the soil around themandJake burst into a large cavernunder the ground, falling onto a solid metal floor. Jake blinked twice and looked around himself in confusion. The cavern was man-made and there was mining equipment all around him, blocking him from view. He heard footsteps and saw a female Team Magma member suddenlywalk into the cavern from a small passageway and begin looking for something. Jake turned into an Umbreon and used Faint Attack to become invisible, wanting to investigate. He silently stalked the girl (for she was about 18) as she rummaged through the crates. She finally pulled a sophisticated metal crate with a blue circle on it from the pile and opened it with a combination entered on a keypad. The crate opened with a hiss of decompression and the girl put shiny blue gloves on. Intrigued Jake stepped closer… but that was his first mistake. A device on the girl's belt bleeped and she took out a red tazer from her pocket, an electrical charge running between the two prongs already. Jake had no time to open his mouth before a one hundred thousand volt shock blew him off his feet and into a particularly large mining drill. Just before he lost consciousness completely he made it intoan Espeon form and sent a single telepathicword to Angel… 'Help!'

Angel woke with a start as she heard the injuredShroomish on the bed next to her sneeze. She slowly stood on her feet and walked into the waiting room where Jimmy, Rebekah, Brendan and May were sleeping quietly, in various states of unusual positions. Rebekah was sleeping on a couch in an upsidedown sitting position, Jimmy was lying spread-eagled on the floor, his drool pooling around his face. May was in a sleeping bag hanging from a wall by a lot of Scotch Tape, while Brendan was directly under her, a roll of said tape in his hand and a dreaming smile on his face. Frowning, Angel counted them off on her fingers. She reached six before she realised that Jake was missing.Angel was about to wake her other friends and ask where Jake went when a shout echoed through her mind. _'Help!' _Angel screamed in shock and fell to her knees, clutching her head in agony. The four other heroes woke with a start and saw their friend in her state of pain, and three of them got up and rushed to her side, while May shouted from her sleeping bag. Angel slumped onto her side heavily and managed to mumble one word before she blacked out.

"Jake…"

Jake woke up with the feeling that his head had been split into two pieces and roughly glued together again by a madman with claws for fingers. He groaned and opened his eyes to see a lake of lava fill his vision, steam obscuring the rest. He gulped as the heat from the liquid washed over him in his conscious state. As he looked up as much as he could to see heavy straps holding his wrists to the dull graytable he was on. According to his internal compass he was upside-down. There was a jolt and the table began turning over so that Jake was the right way up again. As it moved Jake saw mining equipment, people with hard hats, pokemon and most shockingly of all… the immobile, black form of agigantic dinosaur-like pokemonresting in the middle of the lake of lava. But the head plate with ridges and the spikes running down the creature's sides informed Jake, almost immediately, of what the thing was... Groudon. Jake almost cried out in shock but he knew it was pointless as no one who cared would hear him. Finally the table stopped spinning and a red haired man came into view. He looked like he was in his early forties but the paleness of his skin made him look even older and the red and gray suit didn't help either.

"Hello child. My name is Maxie and I am Leader of Team Magma," the man drawled, in an aristocratic accent.

Jake said nothing but shot the man a look of pure contempt as he remembered the events that led to his capture, the shock still leaving a small paralysing effect on his arms and legs, but it would soon wear off thanks to his Limber ability. Then the oldgeezer spoke again and Jake had no choice but to listen.

"I am wondering how you got in here without a Magma Emblem…" Maxie said. "You appear to be a normal boyyet Tabitha informed me that you were an Umbreon and changed into an Espeon when she caught you. Do you have an explanation for this?"

"Go to hell…" Jake muttered spitefully.

With a snap the table turned over, rather faster than it had at first, to face the lava again and winched down a few inches, Jake realizing that it was completely suspended over the lava pit.He began to sweat as the lava came closer and closer, his form losing cohesion as the heat began to melt at him. Jake yelped when a large bubble of magma burst under him and burnt his clothes, almost lighting them on fire. Jake compenstated for the heat by cooling his blood to near Liquid Nitrogen levels.

"I am losing my patience boy…" began Maxie.

"Ok! I'm a pokemorph and I got here by digging a tunnel from Lavaridge! Are you happy now?" Jake yelled.

"Quite…" Maxie said simply. "However I am curious as to how you knew to come here? And what do you know about our plans?"

Jake sighed sadlyand knew that there was no trying to lie to this man, as he held all the strings, so to speak. So Jake opted for the next best thing… stalling and waiting.

"Why did you steal a resurrection machine from Rustboro?" he asked. "And what's with Godzilla over there?"

Maxie frowned, his white teeth showing. He gave Jake a look of disdain and turned to the form of Groudon.

"Since you are so curious and are about to die I shall tell you my plan. Here you see the magnificent Groudon in allhis sleeping splendour. In ancient mythology it is said that Groudon was able to create droughts and make entire islands withhis colossal power. With the resurrection device recovered at Devon we will use a piece of Groudon's fossilized hide to reanimatehim and cover the Earth in land! Just think of how much more room there will be for pokemon and people alike!" Maxie declared excitedly.

He trailed to a finish and gave Jake a look of malicethat made Jake look away in disgust, but he also looked away to hide his fear. Maxie knew that he had gotten all he could from Jake and was ready to finish him off.

"Now my young friend I do believe it is your time to die. Goodbye freak," Maxie said sincerely.

The table began to lower more and more until Jake was sure that he would catch fire from the heat. Suddenly there was a grinding noise and it stopped, Jake hanging from the table by metal cuffs that kept him up and he turned his head to the side. Only he didn't need to as he knew thatfeeling anywhere… Angel was coming, and she was royally pissed.

Maxie trembled in cold and when the lava in the lake began to cool and harden he gasped. As it did there was a tinkling sound and the surface of the rock solid lake became covered with frost. Maxie gasped again and turned, his black eyes suddenly staring into blood red ones. Red eyes that held the fury of which caused nightmares.

Angel picked up Maxie with one hand and, with a grunt,threw him into a large machine. Maxie yelled in pain but was then ignored as the winged teen and four others rushed to the Ditto-morph to break him free. Rebekah snapped the bonds with single kicks and Jake fell onto black rock that used to be a molten pit. He shook himself and got up unevenly. He opened his mouth to thank Angel when a roar echoed through the cavern and a maniacal laugh was heard from behind them. The black lake that Jake had just got off turned back to lava in under half a second and the group yelled out in pain as the heat hit them like a hammer blow. Jake pulled a pokeball from his belt and summoned Ducky (the Milotic) onto the solid ground and ordered a Sheer Cold attack. The temperature change turned rocks into pebbles from heat expansion and contraction,and made Jimmy, May and Brendancollapse from their bodies being unable to withstand such a violent climatebut they were able to move again and Angel was no longer looking like a french fry. Rebekah shivered and looked for any sign of Maxie but he had escaped along with whatever had roared and made it so damned hot. Only Jake knew what had happened but he didn't concern himself as two of his friends were nearing death from hyperthermia/hypothermia. Jake picked up Jimmy while Rebekah carried May. Together with Angel flying ahead they ran to a vent in the side of the cave. A computer voice rang out telling them that a self-destruct had been activated and they had five seconds to escape, which was rather cliched but life threatening none the less. Angel doubled back and grabbed Jake and Angel by the backs of their tops and flew as fast as she could. The exit was as small as the head of a pin but was becoming steadily bigger. Rebekah looked behind them as a rumble made her eardrums rattle. A wall of fire was converging on them as the self-destruct began to obliterate the base... with them in it's path.

"Hurry Angel!"Rebekah screamed.

With flames licking at their heels Angel went faster than she ever had, but the flames were faster. From outside it looked like a tongue of flame burst from the side of the volcano… then a large shadow burst forth from the inferno, sailing into the morning air.

Angel collapsed to her knees in exhaustionas they set down on the east river bank near Mauville on some god forsaken route. That meant that if they went north for an hour or so they'd reach Fortree and the next best Pokemon Center. Angel managed to slap her white trench coat on before collapsing to the ground completelyfrom fatigue. Jimmy and May were happilycooling near the river bank on the sand and Rebekah sat opposite Jake on a pair of park benches on either side of the Route. none of them were talking much.

"How did you find me?" Jake asked finally.

"Angel woke us up when she sort of had a seizure or something. She blacked out but when she woke up she was as angry as a Gyarados with a hernia. She led us to a huge boulder in the side of Mt Chimney and started to hit it. Didn't work until she used her foot to bust open a passageway. It was man-made and everything. It appears that the rock covering it was a doorway and we had to battle through a load of wild pokemon and Magma members 'til we found out where they were hiding you and what they were doing. Appears that… Maxie was it? Was trying to revive a Groudon with the stolen Devon Device (that's what it's called from now on) and use it to take over the world," Rebekah explained. "Angel got so angry that she didn't even respond to us and she became so cold that she froze the lava. One guard thanked her and let us past cause he was dying of heat exhaustion next to a small pool of lava. He swore to leave Team Magma from the way he was treated and I wonder if we'll meet him again. His name was Luke Warm. I thought that was a funny part... But then we found you and Angel froze everything and you were like 'oooh' when it all froze. Then it went back to lava and went had to es-…"

"I know about those parts I was there!" Jake shouted.

Rebekah blinked and sweatdropped.

"Oh yeah…" she muttered.

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**That's Act 1 but after some more chapters Act 2 will commence. I call them Act 1 and Act 2 cause they are some of the only chapters that include actual members of Team Magma. In the next chapter Jimmy asks Rebekah out on a date in Fortree while Jimmy and Brendan try to win a Wing Badge from Winoa and Angel is having some anger management issues.**


	11. Chapter 11: It's All About Us

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon.**

**Hey and yo to everyone! Thanks for all the positive reviews! **

**Angel: Yeah! Me and Jake are having so much fun! (cough)**

**Not that way though… but for now here's a new chapter for all u people. I think I'll enjoy this one. There's a new character but it's only for this chapter as we learn of some of our heroes new talents for going insane.**

**Angel: Definitely. ;)**

**Chapter 11: It's All About Us**

It's a well known fact that most people that live in Fortree City can be considered as eco-warriors. This could be due to the fact that they have lived in trees for most of their lives or maybe due to the fact that a girl with the power to freeze things upon sight was headed their way. Lettuce watch…

"I CAN'T BELIEVE HE GOT AWAY!" Angel screamed for the fifth time. "We were so close too!"

"I know I thought we had him until he finished cloning that fossil…" Rebekah added.

May, Jake, Jimmy and Brendan remained silent. Jake was the worst affected by all this as it was he who had been caught and almost roasted alive by the crazed Maxie of Team Magma. The entire group was walking past the Weather Institute and people were skating on the just frozen lake as Angel passed them. Angel paid them no attention and continued to storm towards Fortree City. She didn't even apologize when she stood on a girl's tail, though it was an odd thing to happen.

"Hey!" The girl cried in protest.

Angel shot her a cold glare.

"Muzzle it…" she said dangerously.

The girl fell silent and followed our intrepid explorers from a distance. Only Brendan noticed this but didn't mention it as he was too tense about Angel's mood to mention anything. After a minute they reached the outskirts of the mighty tree-top town. The trees blocked almost everything from view, even the Gym. The sun was directly overhead and it was warm as the trees absorbed the heat. Angel stalked to the Pokemon Center and walked inside while the other five stood outside and looked at the wonderful view they had.

"Not a very pleasant person is she?" said a cool female voice behind the group.

Brendan was the first to turn around and saw that it was the girl they had passed. She had shoulder length hair that was a shiny light purple. On her forehead was a small charka gem and from behind her back came a purple, forked tail. All her clothes were purple…

"Espeon-morph?" Jimmy enquired.

"Yup. My name's Jade," the girl replied sticking out her hand.

May was the one to step forward and shake the girl's hand. As she did Jade seemed to look her up and down. Her piercing navy eyes gave May the chills. Rebekah whispered something to Jimmy and the two ran off laughing. Jake, being the only poke-morph left, sat down next to Jade to talk and May just stood there awkwardly. She looked for an exit and noticed Brendan was still with them. She sighed and dragged him to the PokeMart to look at the new clothes aisle that had been advertised.

"So can you read people's minds?" Jake asked.

"No I can't. I'm only empathic and can use psychic abilities like telekinesis," Jade replied.

"So you don't know what's bothering Angel?" Jake asked desperately.

"Who? Oh the angry girl? No I don't," Jade replied.

Jake frowned in thought and decided to use his abilities to find out what was wrong. In a flash he was the fox-like Alakazam and by using his vast psychokinetic powers he homed in on Angels thoughts and managed to hear her thinking.

"_Why doesn't Jake take me on a date?" _she thought.

Jake, still an Alakazam, sweatdropped and turned into a Roselia. Carefully he pulled a rose from his own hand and turned back into his human form. Jade watched all of this with eyes as wide as soup plates. Jake then turned one of his fingernails into a long strip of sticky tape and used some of it to stick a picture of Ice Falls onto the stem with a note saying, 'Fifth date?' on it. Jade seemed to want to say something but Jake ignored her and walked into the Pokemon Center to find his girlfriend. Jade sighed and brought a compact mirror from her pocket and flipped it open. The mirror slid up to reveal a mesh speaker.

"Found the targets," she whispered. "The Ditto guy might be a problem though."

"_Excellent. Commence with our plan," _replied a sinister voice. _"The Ditto-morph is your top priority…"_

Jade snapped the compact shut and walked into the Pokemon Center, carelessly handing her belt of pokeballs to a passing Chansey. The Chansey smiled and hopped away to have the pokemon healed. Jade tucked her tail into her trousers before it was seen and then sat near where Jake and Angel were talking. Angel seemed a lot happier and was even polite enough to apologize to Jade for standing on her tail.

"S'no prob…" Jade replied.

Angel frowned. Jade's accent was one of a Kanto raised person yet that was where Team Rocket's main bases were. Deciding that she was being paranoid Angel ceased that train of thought and started the new one of trying to decide where to go with Jake.

Suddenly the doors to the Center burst open and Brendan, along with May, Jimmy and Rebekah, walked in. Jake waved them over and the whole group sat on opposite couches. Jimmy was the first to start the plans for the rest of the day.

"Brendan and I want to try and win a Wing Badge off of Winoa but the entrance is blocked somehow," he grumbled.

"Not an invisible wall?" Angel asked.

"No…" was all that Brendan said.

Angel then realised that he wasn't very happy and that he was wearing different clothes. He wore a green bandanna instead of his usual black and red one. He had a short-sleeved version of his jumper and he had navy blue jeans that reached just past his ankles. He looked a lot cooler and the same could be said for May who had also changed her outfit. She wore a green bandanna tied over her head just like her red one and a red shirt with no sleeves. She also wore black biker shorts that were partly covered by her long shirt and had gotten a new green side pack. Angel smiled and nodded, impressed. Brendan just sulked for some unknown reason and remained silent while May showed off her new clothes. Jake then announced his plans.

"I'm gonna go for a cruise around the world…" he declared.

"How're you gonna do that? We leave tomorrow!" May exclaimed.

"Don't say that to a Dragonite!" Jake said cryptically.

Angel then decided to share her idea with the gang.

"I myself have decided to get a whole new team of pokemon starting with Ice! The rest of my pokemon can stay with Prof Birch who gave me my pokenav!" she said excitedly.

Something clicked in Jake's head.

"Yeah! The Safari Zone isn't too far from here and there are Pikachu with Light Balls in there!" he said drooling.

Finally it was Rebekah's turn to have her say.

"Me and Jimmy are going on a date while Brendan gets rid of the invisible wall thingy outside the Gym," she said quietly, going red.

Everyone laughed but it was a good humoured laugh that made Rebekah feel calmer. Her friend's didn't think her crazy but Angel gave her a serious look.

"I wouldn't go spreading the word of this Rebekah. Team's Rocket and Magma are onto us and we don't want to keep having to rescue Jimmy from being roasted in a volcano," she said with a small laugh.

Jade's face darkened and she looked from one face to the other. _'So Team's Rocket and Magma are after them then? This could interfere with our plans… I better tell the boss,' _she thought to herself. _'At least I'm not one of those goons. Team Magma is a joke and Team Rocket isn't even trying to take over the world now…'_

These thoughts continued until Jade realized that she was alone. She cursed silently and began to work on her plans. First she would do this and then maybe that for a diversion or maybe that. Then she would take care of the strongest one. Jade smiled evilly as she memorized the details of her operation. This would be fun…

0o0o0o0

Jake did a draconic sigh of content as he sailed through the sky, his bulky orange body floating easily on his small wings. After floating about a little Jake got serious and chose the shortest route that would take him over Kanto and Johto, passing the north coast of Tatto and spinning back down to Hoenn. Jake grinned as he imagined the strange creatures and sights he would see. Maybe a Dragonite form was a bit much then. Some idiot trainer might try to capture him. Jake made an alteration and the war-cry of a Pidgeot echoed around Fortree. Jake flying along a little and turned to an almost vertical ascent until he was around 10,000ft in the air. Jake did a bird's equivalent to a grin and then nose dived straight down. His feathers grew hot and he winced slightly as the G-forces took their toll on him. But deep down Jake loved it. As he blasted through the lower clouds they swirled around him, causing a twisting funnel to follow him. The air around Jake frizzed and Jake pulled out of the dive at speeds nearing Mach 5. The tops of trees were blown sideways so violently that the trees seemed to be trying to throw themselves over. Jake didn't even need to flap his wings as he was going so fast the particles in the air held him up. Still going stupidly fast Jake rose to a safe altitude so that he wouldn't cause any damage. He felt like going faster than the speed of light! Maybe that wasn't such a bad idea…

0o0o0o0

Brendan had rooted through his bag and found his old Devon Scope near the bottom. After using it he found that the invisible wall was being created by a small Manene, the pre-evolved version of Mr Mime. The tiny pokemon took off and disappeared into the undergrowth while Brendan walked calmly into the Gym. It was a small place but the roof was completely flat and Brendan could've sworn he had seen a trainer's box up there. Inside he went to the desk and rang the bell. A receptionist came rushing over with a smile on her face.

"Hello you must be here to challenge our Leader?" she asked politely.

"Umm… Yeah I suppose," Brendan said.

"If you'll just go through those doors and up to the roof you'll find our Leader training," the receptionist said, pointing.

Brendan walked through the doors and up at least six flights of small steps until he reached a door and he pushed through it uncertainly. He was back outside and just like he thought the roof was used for the Gym battles. He was already standing in the challenger's box and he spotted Winoa flying down to the roof upon her Altaria. Winoa had long silvery hair under an aviation hat with goggle and little wings on the sides. She looked old but her pleasant face spoke of her youth.

"Hello there chap! You must be here to try and win the Wing Badge isn't that right?" she asked nicely.

"Yeah! But I'm not an easy customer!" Brendan claimed, pulling a pokeball from his belt.

"Well I'm not so easy either!" Winoa called back drawing her own pokeball.

"GO!" both trainers yelled as they threw out their balls.

An Octillery and a Swablu appeared.

_**Battle Situation:**_

_**Brendan's Octillery vs. FGL Winoa's Swablu**_

_**This is a three-on-three battle with no time limit.**_

_**COMMENCE BATTLE!**_

"Octillery use Skull Bash to start!" Brendan called out.

"Swablu counter with Peck now!" Winoa cried after.

Octillery moved slowly towards Swablu but rapidly picked up speed until it was rocketing through the air. Swablu panicked and was caught head on with the attack but managed to land in a few, rock-hard, pecks at Octillery's now vulnerable head. Both pokemon were injured and bounced back to their trainers.

"Swablu use Sing and then Heal Bell!" Winoa cried.

"Octillery use Ink Spray at it's mouth!" Brendan countered.

Swablu began to sing and Octillery drowsily shot ink at it, which just managed to go down the cotton bird's throat causing it to gag and cough up the vile liquid. Luckily it did it's job and Swablu had stopped singing. But then Swablu waved it's wings slowly and a small shimmering noise came from them. The injuries on Swablu seemed to wiped away with a damp cloth as the blue pokemon healed itself. Brendan groaned in annoyance as Octillery fell asleep.

"Awakening!" he cried as he use a hand to crush the tablet.

He then threw the powder over his pokemon and Octillery woke up surprisingly fast and, without orders, shot a Hydro Pump at the poor bird. Swablu was shot out of the air by the precision attack and was out cold before it touched the ground.

"Swablu return!" Winoa said. "Good job…"

"Octillery return too!" Brendan added. "Great work boy."

Brendan pulled a second pokeball from his belt and threw it out with a cry of 'Go Muddy!' Brendan's Swampert (aka Muddy) came out with a loud cry and stomped heavily on the ground in anticipation. Winoa smirked and twirled a pokeball between her fingers before crying, "Go Tropius!"

_**Battle Situation:**_

_**Brendan's Swampert vs. FGL Winoa's Tropius**_

_**This is a three-on-three battle with no time limit.**_

_**COMMENCE BATTLE!**_

"Muddy use Ice Beam!" Brendan commanded, wanting to wrap this up quick.

"Tropius Fly!" Winoa called in retaliation.

Muddy opened his mouth and a pale blue ball of winter energy formed before zapping out. Tropius flapped out it's four large leaves and used them to take off, avoiding most of the damage but the Ice attack clipped one of it's feet, encasing it in ice.

"Darn! Tropius use Sunny Day now!" Winoa cried from below.

The fruit on Tropius' neck glowed a brilliant orange and all cloud vanished as the sun began to shine brightly all around. Brendan took off his bandanna and put on his green cap to protect his eyes.

"Muddy use Blizzard while it's airborne!" he shouted.

Muddy inhaled deeply before blowing a full gale blizzard from it's mouth. The snow almost reached Tropius before melting and Brendan grimaced.

"Now Tropius! Solar Beam!" Winoa called in triumph.

Tropius gathered solar energy in its leaves and the energy formed a ball in its mouth. For extra velocity Tropius began to dive at Muddy. Muddy closed his eyes and Brendan turned away, unable to watch. Tropius reached max potential and released the Solar Beam just meters from where Muddy stood. The area around them became fogged out in dust from the blast and Brendan turned back.

"Muddy!" he cried.

_(Insert Hoenn comeback music)_

The smoke cleared and all present gasped. Muddy was crouching behind a glowing, golden shield that had formed around itself. Brendan cheered while Winoa cursed. Muddy, full of vengeance, leapt forward and grabbed Tropius around the neck. Brendan grinned cheerily.

"Seismic Toss Muddy!" he called.

Muddy entered a hammer-throw while holding onto Tropius tightly. It spun faster and faster until it was almost a blue blur. Then Muddy released Tropius upwards and the grass/flying element sailed into the sky.

"Now Muddy! Finish this with one more Ice Beam!" Brendan called.

Muddy formed the artic energy one more time and this time it didn't miss it's target. Tropius was completely frozen in midair and fell to the ground, the ice shattering.

"Tropius!" Winoa cried in despair.

Brendan cheered while Winoa returned her pokemon. Then she did the unexpected. She pulled a white handkerchief from her chest pocket and threw to Brendan's feet. Brendan stepped back slightly in confusion and Winoa had the grace to smile.

"I surrender chap. You put up a jolly good show!" she explained.

Brendan nodded and jumped in triumph as Winoa gave him the Wing Badge. Brendan pinned it on the collar of his shirt along with the Stone Badge and Balance Badge. He only had three but they made Brendan all the more prouder of his pokemon.

"Thanks Winoa! I'll give you a rematch one day," Brendan promised.

"Jolly good. Until then, chocks away old chap!" Winoa said as she summoned her Skarmory for another flight.

Brendan grinned until he realized just what Winoa had meant.

"Hey I'm not old!" he yelled at her shrinking silhouette.

He was about to turn and leave when a hand clamped over his mouth and he felt the prick of a needle. _'Oh shit…' _he thought as he lost consciousness.

0o0o0o0

May wandered the treetops of Fortree in sheer boredom. She had bought some new items for her Secret Base that she had forgotten was just outside Fortree and now she was at a loss of what to do. Brendan was off winning a badge, Jake was cruising around the world at top speed, Angel was out catching new pokemon and Rebekah was out with Jimmy somewhere. Now May had nothing to do but walk around and stare longingly at her leaflet on the coming Hoenn League. But by thinking of it she began to think of Ash again. She missed him so much… she still had loads to learn from him but she couldn't stay his student forever. Even so she missed in carefree-ness and how he was always hungry. She would rather be listening to him rant about his latest battle than be alone like she was now. Until…

"Hi May," said Jade as she sat down next to May on the wooden bridge. "What'cha doin?"

"Nothing…" May sighed. "I have absolutely no idea what to do."

"Why not play with your pokemon?" Jade asked.

"They're at the Pokemon Center resting," May said dully.

"The Base Shop?"

"Been there."

"What about the lake? You could go fishing," Jade said.

"I caught a Magikarp. Don't like fishing," May answered curtly.

"Oh. Well how about we go back to the Center. I heard that Brendan won his badge," Jade said finally.

"Okay!" May said, happily.

Just as she stood up May felt something sharp pierce her skin and she slumped onto the floor of the bridge. Jade gathered her up and began to walk away, her face a mask of concern for fallen friend.

0o0o0o0

Angel sighed happily at her new collection of pokemon. She had miraculously found a green Chimecho that had been attacked by an angry Linoone. Angel rescued the poor thing and then caught it with a pokeball. She also had, from her battling wild pokemon, the Linoone that had attacked Chimecho, a Surskit, a Manetric, and an unmoving pokemon called Shedinja.

"Well it's a good start. I guess I'd better head back," she said to herself.

Just before turning around she heard an angry cough and ducked to the ground on instinct. Something shiny zipped over her and hit a tree, causing it to shrivel and lose it's leaves.

"Damn!" was all that Angel could hear.

Then just as Angel got up again there was another shot and this on caught her in the middle of the chest. Angel had time to reach up and pull a hypodermic dart out of her before slumping to the ground. Jade calmly walked out of the bushes with May's miniature rifle. She then grabbed Angel's wrist and dragged her out of sight. Unfortunately for Jade, there was a pair of amber eyes watching the entire thing.

0o0o0o0

Jake got back to Fortree exhausted and at about 1:00am in the morning. He landed heavily and turned back into his human form. He was almost asleep on the ground outside when a pair of warm hands grabbed him and picked him up.

"Rebekah," Jake said shortly. "Whassup?"

"Jade is. She's systematically kidnapped all our friends, even Jimmy!" Rebekah exclaimed.

"WHAT!" Jake cried in alarm. "What about Angel is she-.."

"Jade got her too. I don't know where they are now," Rebekah said. "Me and Jade fought but she used her psychic powers to make me reappear at the Pokemon Center here. Then she teleported away."

Jake felt a dark feeling work it's way through him and panicked.

"Oh great here it comes…" he muttered.

"What?" asked Rebekah.

"Get back! Now!" Jake cried as he fell to his knees.

Rebekah dashed backwards and saw Jake undergo something like torture. He screamed in fury and pain but there was nothing there hurting him. From the outside at least…

"Whoa…" Rebekah mumbled.

Jake's hair grew slightly longer, his eyes became pools of pure black, his nails and teeth growing pointy and sharp. He looked overall more feral than before and something about it looked a little familiar.

"The Mightyena," Rebekah whispered in horror.

"That's right..." Jake said gruffly. "The Mightyena have given me even more power than before. Now we can go get Angel."

He turned into an Alakazam but Rebekah was shocked to see that it was a Shadow Alakazam. She hadn't seen one of them since she became wanted by Team Cipher in the Orre region. Jake used his newfound dark powers to find Jade and then grabbed Rebekah roughly before teleporting. They appeared in the outskirts of Evergrande City and Jake looked around. He looked up and spotted Jade standing on the roof of one of the tall office buildings about a kilometre away. His senses were so sharp that he could probably hear a Spinarak scratching in New Bark Town. He left Rebekah and teleported to the top of the building and turned back into a human. Jade turned, surprised, to face him.

"What the-?" she began.

She had no time to finish as Jake had grabbed her by her collar and lifted her off the ground. She gulped and Jake glared into her eyes.

"Where. Is. Angel?" he asked venomously.

Just as suddenly Jade grinned and pulled a remote from her pocket. She pressed a red button and a large bubble appeared in midair with Jake's friends trapped inside. The bubble was past the edge of the building and the only thing holding up his friends. Jake then felt a strange sensation but resisted as Jade tried to remove him with her powers.

"Why won't you disappear?" Jade asked hysterically.

"Two words. Dark powers," Jake sneered.

"Well I can still beat you!" Jade cried.

Amazingly she was able to blast Jake off his feet and onto the floor of the roof they stood on. He jumped to his feet to see Jade with her fists raised and readied himself for battle. His eyes adopted their fury mode and turned blood red with the pupils going diamond shaped. Jade sweatdropped.

"What was that?" she asked rhetorically.

Jake didn't answer and started towards her but she held out the remote and put her thumb on a green button. Jake stopped and looked at it warily.

"If I press this button the field will release one person and that person will take about three seconds to fall to their deaths. I suggest that you come quietly," Jade smirked. She brought out a stun gun. "Or should I have to do this the hard way?"

Jake felt only despair and it vanquished his anger, returning him to normal. His memory of the anger mode thing became fuzzy and he dropped to his knees. He looked at Jade with pleading eyes.

"Okay. Just let my friends go," he said.

"But of course," Jade said wickedly.

She pressed a larger green button and the whole force field collapsed, making Jake's friends freefall. Jake screamed in anger and shot a fist that struck Jade's throat, crushing her windpipe. He then turned into a Venusaur and used his Vine Whips blindly and caught three of his friends. He reeled them in and saw that he missed someone… fuck.

0o0o0o0

Rebekah knew this would've happened sooner or later. Luckily the city was deserted as no one would show up yet for another month or so. Then it would be jam-packed full of trainers but for now it was a ghost town. A kilometre away Angel was half-way to the ground and Rebekah was already running towards her. Her feet were an orange blur as she ran and she pushed herself to go faster. Time seemed to slow down but Rebekah knew unless she went faster she wouldn't make it. Though she knew she was holding back. Then it happened.

Angel woke up to see the ground rapidly approaching. She tried to unfold her wings but her coat was still on and there was no time to get it off. She screamed and her mind made it's goodbyes to all her friends and adoptive family. This scream was what made Rebekah find the will to move faster than she had ever moved before. She stopped pumping her arms and used them to streamline her form and by crouching slightly she moed faster until…

BOOM!

**Well that's the end of that chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it and don't worry we won't see Jade again but we'll find out who she's working for later on. This was the longest chapter I've written yet and I'm quite pleased with myself so please review and I'll update soon. Promise!**

**Angel: Yaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy!**

**Sigh…**


	12. Chapter 12: Ozone

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any kind of anime.**

**Okay it's another day, another chapter and a new adventure for us all.**

**Angel: Yeah… I'm bored.**

**Well you'll be quite active in this chapter. You'd better get your Running Shoes.**

**Angel: Wha?**

**;) Well ciao and please review! Oh yeah and I confused May for Angel so it WAS Angel that fell. Sorry! Lol**

**Angel: I like falling. **

**_Ages: (cause you might wanna know)_**

_**Angel- 14**_

_**Rebekah- 15**_

_**May- 13**_

_**Brendan- 14**_

_**Jimmy- 15**_

_**Jake- 13 and a half**_

**Chapter 12: Ozone**

It was silent in Evergrande City. All was calm and quiet… until a girl running at supersonic speeds came rushing in. Windows shattered and entire buildings crumbled from the air displacement effect following Rebekah as she ran for all she was worth. A few hundred metres ahead Angel was watching the ground quickly come into view. She had about half a second before she was crushed against the concrete. Rebekah knew there was no more time left and a red crackle of energy ran across her limbs. More crackles appeared so that it looked like she was sparking red electricity. Her ring from Jimmy glowed brightly, unnoticed and Rebekah ran even faster. Buildings began to just seemingly explode when she ran past. She was almost there… almost… Then with a forward leap she grabbed Angel and flipped over to land on her still running feet. She screeched to a long halt with Angel safely in her arms. Finally they ground to a halt, small sparks emitting from Rebekah's boots as they skidded.

Behind them was total devastation. The road was cracked and some bits had heaved up, chunks of concrete lay everywhere and glass dusted the whole scene. Most buildings had survived while looking thoroughly unendurable while others were simply… gone.

"Damn… Let's just say there was an earthquake," Angel said, jumping to her feet. "And thanks for being so quick."

"No problem… well not much of one," Rebekah replied.

Just than a hand reached Rebekah's shoulder and gripped it. Rebekah panicked and flung whoever had grabbed her over her shoulders. Jake flew forward and hit the ground as if he had thrown himself on purpose.

"Oww…" he moaned. "What was that for?"

Rebekah grinned but said nothing as Jake stood up quickly. He checked Angel over for injuries before pulling her to him, into a loving embrace. Rebekah smiled widely and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. From behind her she heard the other three coming and motioned for them to stop. She turned and tiptoed to Jimmy's side, as he started at the couple before them. But then to break the mood, Brendan's stomach grumbled.

"BRENDAN BIRCH!" screamed May.

She whipped a mallet out of her bag and smacked Brendan over the head with it. Brendan groaned but stood still after the attack and grabbed some chocolate from his bag. Jake and Angel had long since released each other with embarrassed grins. May saw Brendan's chocolate and attempted to grab it but Brendan held it teasingly out of her reach as he was a good two inches taller than her. He laughed as May whined and clawed at his hand to get what she wanted. Rebekah noticed this and began chanting…

"Jump, jump, jump, jump, jump!" she cried as May stood on her tip-toes.

Brendan laughed openly but stopped when he tasted wood. May's mallet struck his teeth hard and he felt a sharp pain go through them. He fell on his ass and clutched his mouth in pain. May stopped and dropped the mallet in surprise. The chocolate lay forgotten.

"Son of a bitch! That really hurt May!" Brendan cried.

May bristled at the comment and retaliated. Brendan brought out his pocket mirror as she shouted back.

"It's your own fault for teasing me!" she retorted.

Brendan sighed in relief when he noticed that he had all his teeth and none were damaged. May also became worried and crouched in front of him. Brendan looked at her and saw that she was near the brink of tears. He calmed himself by chanting his mantra, "She's just a girl, she's just a girl."

"I'm sorry Brendan. I didn't mean to hurt you," she said quietly.

"Then why'd you hit me in the first place!" Brendan exclaimed.

May shrugged and Brendan groaned in frustration. He handed May his chocolate bar and she grabbed it, running off, with a giggle. Brendan stood and noticed that everyone was doing their own thing again. Rebekah was doing calve-stretches, Angel was brushing her wings, Jimmy was watching Rebekah with a small string of drool hanging from his mouth, and Jake was practicing his fight moves. Brendan sighed and let out all his pokemon. He then gave out their food and sat on the broken road while they ate. When everyone, apart from May, saw this they followed suit and Jake ran off to loot the Pokemart of some of its pokechow. When he came back he took a pack for himself and ate from it like a bag of crisps. May and Brendan sweatdropped while Angel and Rebekah asked for him if there was some for them, which there was. The gang spent the entire day there at Evergrande and after some persuasion Jake went back to the building he killed Jade at and grabbed her things. He shuffled through notebooks and pokeballs until he found a compact mirror. He shrugged and took all of it with him.

Angel was the one to find the communicator. In truth she was using the mirror to check her hair but she hit the part where the speaker was and the mirror slid down to reveal it. Angel frowned and hit some buttons until a live voice emitted from it.

"_Jade Faction HQ. Administrator Ed Quake speaking. Is that you Jade?" _said the voice.

The group remained silent as they listened.

"_Are you there Jade? Come on. Talk! Fine I'm sending a patrol out for you. Just stay where you are!" _the voice said before cutting off.

The whole group looked at one another before running off, leaving the stuff behind. Not a moment too soon as a pair of Dragonite wearing Dark-Glasses swooped down and pawed through the pile of belongings. They picked up the communicator and pokeballs then shot off again. Silence descended upon our group of heroes as they digested this new bit of information.

"Okay it looks clear!" Jake called.

The group reassembled next to the remains that was Jade's, thought to be their friend, belongings that had been left behind. Angel was thinking hard about what they had seen and heard. May was conversing with Jimmy, and Rebekah was giving Angel a meaningful look but Angel didn't catch it. Brendan was now in discussion with Jimmy and Jake… well he didn't know what to do. He'd gone and killed a person because his anger had taken control. He never wanted that to happen again and he was afraid that he was a liability to his friends. If only he could stop his anger…

"Well maybe I should try meditation," he mumbled quietly to himself.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel, Jake, Rebekah, May and Brendan trudged down to the Evergrande Waterfall to wait on Jimmy. He had offered to exchange one of his pokemon for his Wailord, which was massive enough to carry all of them up to Mossdeep Island. As they waited May sat on a rock and watched a ferry pass them. She could've sworn she saw a girl standing on the prow of the ferry as it cut through the water in silence. Shrugging to herself she stood and turned back to her friends only to be knocked onto her butt again as Brendan fell backwards onto her. Angel laughed and Rebekah giggled as Jake helped May get out from under Brendan. The boy in question stood shakily and glared at the two girls.

"Which one of you pushed me!" he demanded.

Suddenly Brendan fell again and even May laughed this time. Unknown to Brendan, Jake was using psychic power to move rocks in front of Brendan's feet so that when he moved he tripped. Suddenly a voice rang through the clearing.

"Once you're done using the force Jake I think you'd better transform. My Wailord's ill and can't make it," Jimmy said as he walked back to the group.

Rebekah's face became concerned. She hugged Jimmy briefly and then turned to Jake who was doing calve stretches. Angel was watching him with interest as he suddenly dived off the cliff and into the water at the bottom of the falls. Rebekah laughed and jumped after him, falling a good fifty metres before landing on Jake's massive blue back. Angel got in on the fun and dived after them, putting in a flip and two twists. May held up a card with a 9.5 on it and Brendan sweatdropped at the randomness before leaping off the cliff himself. Unfortunately his aim was off and he would've hit the ground next to the river had Jake not stretched a fin over to catch him.

"Oops. Sorry bout that Jake," he mumbled.

May was doubled over with laughter as she saw what happened to Brendan and Jimmy sighed. Getting devious he pushed May over the falls and down to her fate. May screamed as she fell and landed, face first, on some big, soft and that smelled strongly of oil. She looked up and saw with relief that she had landed on Jake's back like she had intended. There was a soft thump next to her and Jimmy jumped out of the way as she swung her mallet at him. He was still laughing himself and now that all five heroes were on top of Jake, the massive water behemoth set off. For something so big Jake moved quite quickly through the water. May could still see the Seagallop ferry in the distance.

"Hey Angel! I bet Jake can't outrun that ferry!" she said loudly.

Angel smirked.

"Yeah I bet he can't!" she replied just as loud.

Jake began to smile a whale-ful smile and changed so that there were eight flippers underneath him, kicking strongly. They sped up considerably and Rebekah cheered. Jake also made his hide so smooth it was like laminate. There was now even less resistance and Jake cut through the water like a javelin. May saw the ferry coming closer and also began to cheer Jake on. The closed in, became level with, and passed the ferry slowly. As the group passed May saw the person she had seen on the prow. It was a teenage girl older than any of them by at least a year. But her distinguishable features were her tanned, orange skin, her midnight black hair that had a white streak going down one side, and the Houndoom that was next to her. The girl noticed them and looked them all over. She gave an extra second to look more carefully over Rebekah and May sighed in relief that none of the three pokemorphs were showing any sign that they were any different from a normal human. The girl gave them one final glance and turned back to the silver haired girl next to her. The two walked back into the depths of the ferry and then Jake had passed it.

"I didn't like the look of her," Rebekah said to Angel. "She looked like she was hiding something."

"It doesn't matter. She's just another person," Angel replied.

Little did any of the group know that that girl was anything but another normal person. Soon they would find this out themselves and one of them would wish they hadn't.

0o0o0o0o0o0

It soon became night time as Jake passed into Lilycove Port. After the group disembarked he returned to normal when no one was watching. As he did he noticed Angel watching him and he became uneasy. His feelings became reality as Angel asked him a very impertinent question.

"Hey Jake? How can you transform into huge pokemon and then return to normal with your clothes intact. And how don't they appear on your pokemon form?" she asked, with an arched eyebrow.

May tried hard not to laugh when she heard it but Angel silenced her with a look as Jake tried to answer her question. The others also stopped to listen.

"Well… I suppose being a polymorphic being and all I just absorb my clothes into my cellular structure to be returned when needed. Sort of like they're inside of me until I return to normal. Then they come back out," he explained.

Angel nodded in understanding, as did Jimmy, while the rest of them scratched their heads in confusion. Angel smiled to herself and looked towards Lilycove and her eyes lit up.

"A carnival!" she cried.

May spotted it too and her eyes almost popped out of their sockets. She grabbed Brendan and dragged him towards the large mass of lights as Angel put her arm through Jake's and they walked more… gracefully to the fun fair. Rebekah looked at Jimmy.

"Coming?" she asked with a grin.

"You mean after what happened at the last one? You bet on it!" Jimmy replied with a laugh.

The last two ran off after their friends and found themselves in the middle of the fair with no sign of Angel, Jake, May or Brendan. Rebekah groaned but Jimmy grinned. Finally he had time alone with Rebekah. He looked around and his gaze came upon a Ball Toss game. He tapped Rebekah's shoulder.

"How about we try that first?" he asked.

They walked up to it and a large, smiling man welcomed them.

"Hello young sir! Care to try win your lovely girlfriend a prize?" he asked jovially.

"Sure. Give me three balls," Jimmy replied.

He handed over a dollar and was given three white balls to throw. Jimmy knew about being duped so he weighed the first one in his hand. It was medium-light and hollow so he would need an angled throw to knock anything over. He eyed his target, a triangle of drinks cans, and prepared to throw. Rebekah watched with interest as he reeled his arm back and flung the ball across the distance. It spun twice and impacted on the bottom middle can. The can was blown out from the others and without the can to support them the others fell as well. Rebekah clapped in excitement as Jimmy chose her a stuffed Ponyta toy. He received it and handed it to Rebekah who thanked the man who ran the stall and grabbed Jimmy's hand. She dragged him back to the middle of the fair and they looked around again. There was a mini rollercoaster but it was too small to be exciting. A Ferris wheel was about thirty metres away but Jimmy saw the winner. There was a large structure that held at least eight separate trampoline mats. He pointed it out to Rebekah and they ran off for it, hand in hand.

0o0o0o0o0o0

May was lost again. She didn't know why she'd agreed to follow Brendan into this hall of mirrors but it was damn confusing to be sure. She looked around her and at least thirty other Mays did the same.

"Dammed nation!" she cursed quietly. "Why'd I decided to follow Brendan?"

She used her hands to guide herself past the mirrors and spotted the back of Brendan up ahead.

"There you are!" May exclaimed.

She reached him and tried to grab his shoulder, only to crack her wrist on a mirror. May cursed loudly and the reflection turned around. It seemed to walk towards her and from her right came the real Brendan. He reached May and tapped her to make sure she was real.

"Oh thank god I found you May! I've hit my head at least three times now!" he exclaimed.

May just had to laugh at Brendan and hugged him tightly. Brendan sweatdropped at this behaviour but slowly returned the hug.

"At least you're safe," May said quietly.

Brendan chose not to respond to that but let May go and tried to find the exit. May followed him and reeled back when she cracked her head on something hard. Once her vision had returned she looked around again only to find herself alone once more.

"Shit."

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel sighed in boredom as Jake continued to drag her around the stalls. There was a stall selling candy floss, one that had a raffle thing and another that sold ancient videos that no one wanted. Finally they came to a stall that Angel liked.

"Come one, come all to see the mythical Articuno on video!" the stall keeper shouted.

Jake heard this and looked to Angel.

"Wanna watch?" he asked.

"Why not? I don't have anything better to do," Angel said.

Jake caught the hint of boredom in her voice and turned back to the miniature TV. Sure enough there was an Articuno flying around, hurling Ice Beams at two other birds. One was the legend of fire, Moltres. The third was the lightning titan Zapdos. The three birds swirled around each other, fighting, while the stall keeper explained what was happening.

"This footage was taken at the Orange Archipagelo near Shamouti Island. As you can see there is an Articuno flying around attacking the other two legendary birds but here I have something to interest you all," the man said.

He motioned to a box covered with a light blue cloth. There was a chirping noise from inside and the crowd leaned in closer.

"Here with me is an Articuno chick captured at the Ice Path in Johto!" the man exclaimed, pulling the cloth off.

The crowd gasped and crowded around the cage as the little blue bird stared at them. Angel knew it was a true Articuno when it looked her in the eye and chirped cutely. It ruffled its feathers and pecked at its tail absently. Then the man said words that would make Angel's cold heart go on fire.

"Would anyone like to hold her?" he asked.

Angel stuck her hand up so fast it was as though she knew what the man was going to say before he said it. The rest of the crowd were at least half a second behind Angel and the stall keeper smiled benignly at her.

"Well little miss how about it?" he asked.

"Sure!" Angel replied.

The man made sure that the little chick couldn't fly away by tying its foot to the bottom of the cage with a long coil of string. Then he carefully took the little bird out and placed it in Angel's hands. Angel could've cried, the chick was so cute, but didn't as the bird looked at her and chirped.

"_Mommy!" _it said.

Angel came to a decision in a split second.

"How much for the little one?" she asked, earning a gasp from the crowd.

The man faltered for a second. He smiled again at Angel though it seemed a little strained now.

"Now, now miss. You can't sell pokemon like they're toys-," he began.

"Nor can you capture them when they're under a year old and take them from their mothers!" Angel retorted.

The man blinked and surveyed Angel as she stared him down. Then he saw Angel's and the Articuno's faces at the same time. Their expressions were almost the same and their eyes were identically glaring at the man.

"I suppose you're right. But what would you with her? She can't battle and people would kill to have an Articuno," the man said evenly.

"Maybe so, but I have a pokemon that can raise this one as her own. She'd be well looked after," Angel replied.

"And what pokemon is that you have?" the stall keeper said.

Angel pulled her pokeball from the special slot in her belt and tossed it upwards. Instead of the usual white light and apparition there was a blinding flash of white and a cry as a bird soared into the sky and back down. From the sky came dark clouds and people gasped when it began to snow. Articuno settled down next to Angel and looked at the chick with interest. The man with the chick had now gone white in the face and made spluttering noises in his throat. Angel quirked an eyebrow at his behaviour.

"All right! I'll give you the bird just don't hurt me!" he cried.

Angel grinned when the man released the string on the chick's leg and ran off screaming. The Articuno chick chirped happily and rubbed its face on Angel's cheek, causing her to blush. Noticing the crowd gathering around them Jake reached Angel and whispered in her ear. Angel nodded and called out Shedinja, now called Nightflier, and had it use Confuse Ray on the people. While they were confused she returned Articuno and Nightflier, and ran off with Jake. When the people came to they just figured that what they saw had been a hallucination. How wrong they were…

0o0o0o0o0o0

The first two pairs to find each other were Rebekah and Jimmy, who found Jake and Angel. Rebekah had still been on the trampoline and when she did an unusually high backflip she spotted Jake and Angel running their way. Jimmy saw them as well and disembarked from the ride when their time was up. He and Rebekah found Jake, who was grinning, and Angel, who had a little blue chick on her shoulder.

"What's with the bird?" Rebekah asked.

"That my friend is for another time," Angel replied with a laugh.

Maybe carnivals weren't so bad after all.

**Badoom doom chh!**

**Well I'm having fun writing this and in the next chapter Angel's gonna have even more fun. Like trying to name her new pet and figuring out were to keep her. Oh and even though it's illegal Angel keeps Articuno's ball with her at all times. Even when in the shower… (drools)**

**Angel: Hey! Oh wait… yeah I do.**


	13. Chapter 13: Shadows

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own squat or diddly.**

_**To the readers and fans:**_

_**Well here's a new chapter for all you who like to read "Pokemon: Dark Angel"! I'd like to say that there are a few surprises in this chapter and a crossover between this and another story during this and the next… two chapters. The other story is called "Shades of Gray" and some of you may have already read it.**_

_**Angel: Uh huh! We get a new friend! **_

_** Sigh **__** Oh well. Back to the drawing board…**_

_**Angel: Bye!**_

**Chapter 13****: Shadows**

Angel walked happily down the main path of the Lilycove Fair with her new baby Articuno perched lazily on her shoulder. She had already tried to put the tiny bird in her pocket but it was too cramped and she had tried putting the little bird in her backpack but she kept popping her head back out. Finally Angel just decided to let her sit on her shoulder as she walked swiftly towards the Hall of Mirrors. Rebekah, who was right behind her, had informed Angel that May and Brendan were inside and the Ice Princess, as she was getting to be called now, wanted to get them out so they could book a nice hotel for the night. Angel, with Jimmy, Rebekah, and Jake right behind her, stopped suddenly and the others walked into her but she was as solid as a steel wall and didn't falter. Jake got up and was about to ask Angel what had happened when there was a loud bang like a gunshot and something small, yet incredibly fast, struck him in the middle of the stomach. His stomach was pushed backwards and his back stuck out as the object made its impact mark. After it had slowed sufficiently Jake popped it out and watched as a large bolt fell to the ground.

"What the hell?" Rebekah asked.

The Ferris wheel near the group groaned and shook slightly. Angel got an ominous feeling and turned to it. The operator was swearing in the control box, sparks were flying from the motors and the huge bolt that held the right side of it up was on the ground in front of Jake. It took Angel three precious seconds to figure what had happened but when she did she acted immediately.

"Jake that Ferris wheel's gonna collapse! Let's move now!" she cried in a panic.

Angel, Rebekah and Jimmy all ran out of the way as the wheel shook again, one of the empty carriages breaking off and falling onto an empty patch of ground. Jake however stood still, watching in awe. Then his ears picked up a cry and he looked back down. A child and his mother were crouching on the ground directly under another empty carriage that was wobbling dangerously. Throwing caution to the wind he extended his arms at thirty metres a second, snagged them, and reeled them both back just as the carriage fell and crashed. Jake sighed and got struck in the head as another bolt snapped off and went sailing. Angel called to him but he ignored her and ran forwards to the breaking structure. Looking up he saw a pair of girls in the topmost carriage and a family in the one in front of them. The girls were clutching each other in terror and the family were praying to whoever was listening. Jake changed his eyes into telescopic vision and surveyed each carriage. The one with the family was already in danger of falling but the screaming girls were in more danger as if their carriage fell then they would be killed as it struck several beams and support bars. In a snap decision Jake crouched low and used his then altered legs to jump up and land lightly on the roof of the top carriage lightly, after shifting his weight down.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel watched in confusion and anger as Jake leaped into the air and onto the carriage with the girls. Why didn't he go for the one with the family? Angel groaned and cursed Jake's name as she handed the Articuno to a befuddled Jimmy and took her cloak-like coat off. She handed the coat to Rebekah and spread her cyan wings wide and leaped into the air, her wings beating to keep her aloft. Flying forwards she reached the carriage and assessed the damage. It looked like it was about to fall so Angel grabbed a thick wire hanging from the frame where lights would be and tied it to the ring on the roof of the cart. Just as she wrapped the other end of the cable around her wrist the carriage broke and plummeted suddenly to the ground. The cable snapped taut but held and Angel winced as she was slowly dragged along the beam she was standing on. Gritting her teeth hard she started flapping her wings while still standing. As soon as she had enough down force she stepped off the edge of the beam and fell downwards slightly as the carriage thudded heavily to the ground. With the carriage on solid ground the family left it hurriedly and ran, presumably, back home. Angel let go of the cable and looked up to see Jake holding the girl's by their collars and flying on white wings away from the already falling carriage. It spun twice, struck the middle beam and split in half, shredding itself on a second support beam.

"Jake!" Angel called as she landed on the ground.

Jake noticed Angel and set down lightly just five metres form her, the girls stumbling slightly as they fell onto their knees weakly. Angel paid them no thought as she marched straight over to Jake and shoved him on the shoulder angrily. He stared at her in confusion and opened his mouth to speak but Angel cut him off sharply.

"Why didn't you go for the family?" she asked. "Their cart almost fell and I had to grab it before it crashed to the ground!"

She held up her blistered and burnt hands to Jake and he held them in his own in shock, mouthing words to himself.

"Well? Did you just want to save those two girls or was there something else in your motive?" Angel asked. Her voice was cold with fury.

"Well… Didn't you notice where their cart was? I calculated that if the family cart fell then the family would have a sixty-three percent chance of survival but if the girl's cart fell, which it did let me remind you, then they would've been killed instantly!" Jake replied, his voice getting just as angry.

"Human lives can't be gambled away like that Jake! What gives you the right to decide who lives and who dies?" Angel asked hysterically.

"What gives me the right to try to save lives?" Jake asked evenly.

Angel became at a loss for words. She tried several times to say something but couldn't. Jake finally thought he had gotten through to her but then she slapped him straight across the face, hard. Jake stumbled back but righted himself as his pink strands of hair grew to a light purple and his skin became smoother and more flexible. Angel recognised this as the Metal Powder he around his neck coming into effect.

"I thought that you were to try and save lives because you could… but if you don't think that then leave because I don't want to be with someone who thinks so little of others!" she yelled furiously.

Jake took a deep, steadying breath and he noticed that crowd around them had thinned until only them, the two girls and the rest of their friends (even May and Brendan who had gotten out of the Hall of Mirrors) were left. He then closed his eyes and when he opened them again Angel screamed in fright and shock. His eyes were blood red with his pupils becoming diamond-like slits. Jake gave Angel once last contemptuous glance before turning on the spot and walking away, the darkness swallowing him up like a shadow.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel sat alone at a table in the Lilycove Pokemon Center while Jimmy, Rebekah, Brendan and May went to get them all lunch. The two girls were also at the Center but they were ignoring Angel and one of them was talking to a Nurse Joy. Angel keyed in on the conversation and listened.

"What? I don't have a Trapinch because I'm not a trainer!" the girl exclaimed.

"Well I have this pokeball here and it says it belongs to a person called Gray. I searched the database but there's no one called that anywhere near here and you're the only Gray in the area so it must be yours," the Nurse replied wearily. "I also took the liberty of matching your fingerprints to the ones on the ball and it's a perfect match."

"But I don't want a Trapinch! What would I do with it?" the girl called Gray asked desperately.

"Are you afraid to look after a pokemon? I've heard from your friend here that you have a wild Houndoom that follows you because it chooses to. Surely you must be able to look after one more pokemon?" the Nurse pleaded.

Gray thought it over for a whole minute, thinking of the different variables.

"Alright fine I'll keep it. Where's the little critter?" she asked.

"_He _is back there and _he _has been waiting on you for quite some time now," the Nurse replied indignantly.

_Note: Jade Island has no official Pokemon Center as of yet and the closest place that has a transporter link to the island is Lilycove City. But Lilycove doesn't even know it…)_

Angel blinked and sighed as Gray was lead to the back to be introduced to her new pokemon and Angel looked up when the girl who was accompanying Gray sat down in the chair across from Angel. She had waist-length shimmering silver hair, a white leather jacket with a blue t-shirt under it, white jeans and trainers, and an unhappy expression on her face. Angel groaned silently and sat up straight when the girl addressed her.

"You could do with being nicer you know," the girl said. "That boy looked pretty upset with you."

"You could do with being politer you know," Angel replied. "You haven't even introduced yourself."

"Oh I'm so sorry. I'm Mariko Tsunami, Master Water trainer!" the girl replied dramatically.

"Uh huh… I'm Angel, a pokemorph like that girl you follow except I'm an Articuno-morph," Angel replied in a bored tone.

Mariko's eyes almost popped out of her head when she heard this and she squinted at Angel, hard. Angel groaned and opened out her coat, wings evident from underneath. Mariko, strangely, reached out and touched Angel's left wing, feeling it's cold but smooth, feathery texture. Angel twitched her wing back and pulled her coat closed just as Gray and the Nurse Joy came back from the depths of the Center. At the same time May, Brendan, Rebekah and Jimmy entered through the front door with a bag of shopping each. Each had a grim expression and as Angel looked at them she knew that they had bad news. May walked over and sat down with a small thud next to Angel while the other three sorted out the shopping.

"Okay… lay it on me," Angel said, her eyes closed.

"Jake's not coming back," May said shortly.

Angel's eyes snapped wide open and she spluttered loudly on the breath of air she had been drawing in. This caused her to sneeze and a tiny Icy Wind froze the surface of the table they were sitting at. Gray, who was watching them carefully, pulled back a frightened Mariko, and stood protectively in front of her as Angel gave May a look that would make a Steelix tremble in fright.

"What do you mean?" Angel asked dangerously.

"We saw him and spoke to him but… he's different. His hair was spiky… well spikier than normal and was grey-ish rather than black. He wore sunglasses that were really dark and all he said was that he'd be watching. It was kinda creepy," May explained.

Angel moaned and, with a dry sob, banged her head onto the tabletop and cried into the frozen wood bitterly. It was her fault… she had lost the best friend she could ever have asked for just because he'd saved someone's life. Gray and Mariko shared a knowing look and walked off to introduce themselves to the others while May gently patted Angel on the shoulder. Her tears trailed off and eventually Angel sat up with puffy red eyes and got out of her chair. She walked slowly to the main entrance and, with everyone watching, walked out into the night air.

"She just needs time," May said to no one.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel sat against a large oak tree in the outskirts of Lilycove, thinking. She thought back to the time when Jake pleaded to travel with her, when they rescued Rebekah from the burning forest, where Jimmy met them in Rustboro, to when May followed them and Brendan appeared. All of the events leading up to this had been spread across only four weeks and already Angel thought about quitting while ahead and leaving the gang to their own devices. A small rustling and Angel was alert and watching but whatever was approaching her made no attempt to stay hidden as the new Jake stepped out of the shadows. He sat down just three metres to the left of Angel, facing the same way as her, but Angel felt as though it was three thousand miles. They had faced a lot but seen so little together and already there were tearing apart. Angel closed her eyes and relaxed as Jake began to speak in a quiet yet deadly serious tone.

"I suppose the others told you my plans," he stated.

"Yes," Angel answered shortly.

"And you know that I'm not going with you when you leave here?" he asked.

"Yes…" Angel said again. "But why not?"

"Well it's from a certain point of view but me staying with you has no put you all at risk. When Jade had kidnapped you all my only thought was to find you and rescue you. Because you meant that much to me…" Jake explained. "But then I killed her with one blow and something changed. Something between us broke and I knew already that our relationship wouldn't last. Do you know why?"

Jake was talking so calmly and seriously that tears fell from Angel's eyes as she listened intently. He was so collected about something so difficult it made Angel wonder if he felt anything at all anymore.

"It's because no matter how much trouble you are in you would never let me kill someone to save you. And when I saved the girls it made you jealous and you thought I didn't care for you anymore…" he continued. "But I still do. It's just that unless I am able to control myself properly I'm a hazard and I shouldn't be with you. Remember when I looked at you with my new eyes?"

Angel turned to Jake in confusion and he lifted his sunglasses. His red eyes glared brightly at her through the gloom. She winced and looked away while Jake repositioned his glasses. Only Jake could think that way that made no sense yet seemed so logical that only he could understand it.

"But Jake I'm sorry and I don't want you to go!" Angel cried crawling over to him. "I still love you!"

Jake looked at her through his black lenses and Angel could've sworn that she saw his original black eyes behind those bottomless shades. But they were gone as soon as they had come as if they hadn't been there in the first place. Angel whimpered slightly and Jake put his arm around her shoulder and held her close to him. Even though Jake was cold like Angel she felt as though he warmed her up from the inside. Angel sighed in content and looked outwards to the Lilycove skyline from their tree at the top of the hill they were on. A few lazy Wingulls wheeled over the water at the docks and Angel watched them for a moment before standing up. Jake followed suit and both of them turned to each other. Angel gazed pleadingly into his eyes but there was no mercy in them. But then Jake reached out and touched Angel's smooth neck, trailing down until his hand stopped. Angel looked up and saw that he had pulled the pendant he had given her for Christmas from her shirt.

"Look at this whenever you need me Angel," Jake said quietly. "It'll remind you that I'm always watching. Take care of yourself."

And then Jake vanished as if someone had blown out the light that had illuminated him to Angel's eyes. Angel felt like crying but she still felt Jake's presence and felt a pair of lips brush hers as a voice whispered, 'I'll be watching'. Angel hugged herself and walked slowly back to the Pokemon Center and when she got inside she found all the people, her friends included, to be asleep apart from one. Angel walked over to Gray who was sitting on a window sill looking out onto the streets.

"Hi there Angel. Can't sleep?" she asked.

"No. Too much happening," Angel answered with a yawn.

"Is it that bad, huh?" Gray asked again, with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah… I just lost my best friend and I don't know for sure whether I'll see him again," Angel replied once more.

"At least I will always have Mariko. But I wonder where Kerr and Sirius got to?" Gray asked herself.

Just then the Pokemon Center doors opened and a young, brown-haired boy tumbled with a Houndoom trotting along at his heels. The boy reached an empty couch and fell onto it, already asleep. Angel presumed that to be Kerr and the Houndoom asleep at the boy's feet to be Sirius. Gray confirmed this with an, 'Oh. There they are…' Angel turned back to Gray who was watching something with fascination in her eyes and Angel followed her line of vision. It landed squarely on Mariko who was sprawled cat-like over a couch by herself. Angel looked more closely at Gray and recognised that look. It was the same look that Jake used to give Angel when he thought she wasn't looking. _'Is she in love with another girl?' _Angel thought in her head. Then Gray stood up, walked to a corner of the room and curled up on the floor to go to sleep herself. Angel decided to let sleeping dogs lie and resumed her staring out the window.

At least Jake was with her…

**This chapter almost made me cry!!! But I'm better and Angel is taking therapy so that she can get better too. But it isn't looking too good at the moment let me tell you.**

**Angel: I miss Jake!!!!!! X**

**See?**


	14. Chapter 14: Next Stop, Mossdeep!

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon.**

_**To the readers:**_

_**I'm in school right now using one of the computers to write this so I'm gonna be brief here. I'll finish the chapter at the lunch break. Sorry I haven't updated in a while so I hope you'll like this next chapter. I'm not gonna give anything away right now so there!**_

_**Angel: Nyah! Nyah!**_

**Chapter 14: Next stop… Mossdeep!**

May awoke feeling slightly sore in the back. Her eyes were shut against the glare of the sun as it beat down on her from her position.

"Darn sun. Wish it'd stop shining…" she mumbled to herself.

"Hurry up May or we'll leave without you!!!" came a shout.

May's eyes snapped open and she squealed as her retinas burned from the suns light. She rolled to her left and fell off the couch she had been sleeping on with a thud and heard Brendan laughing. May cursed the white haired boy's name and opened her slightly sore eyes, sighing when they were in the shade. Then May remembered the shout and grabbed her bag, pokeballs, bandanna, and her pokedex from the couch. Angel was at the entrance to the Center, her arms folded, and when May looked at her she thought she saw a patch of air shimmering next to her but she could still see splotches of colour from trapped light in her eyes. The boy called Kerr was standing next to Sirius, hopping up and down impatiently. Rebekah and Jimmy were near Angel but talking to the two new girls, Gray and Mariko. And Brendan… he was behind her without her noticing and her grabbed her shoulders and shouted, "Boo!" in her ears. May screamed and scrambled away from Brendan who was laughing again. Angel sighed and walked out the door, signalling the others to follow. May shakily stood from her spot on the ground and pulled a Combusken patterned mallet from her bag. She turned to Brendan with a murderous gleam in her eye. Brendan gulped loudly and ran out of the Center as May ran after him, breathing fire (like in an anime).

"What a way to start the morning," said a disembodied voice.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Gray walked along side Mariko, with Kerr next to Mariko, with Sirius next to Kerr, with a nervous Angel next to Sirius, with a grumpy May next to Angel, with a cheery Brendan next to May, with a kissing Jimmy and Rebekah next to Brendan. They took up the entire dirt path leading to the port, where they would board a ferry headed for Mossdeep. Brendan and Jimmy wanted to battle the Gym Leader there for a new badge. Gray and Mariko had their own reasons for wanting to go to Mossdeep and Kerr was following too because he wanted to meet Steven.

"Sooo…" Angel said slowly, breaking the silence.

"What?" Gray asked.

"Um-," Kerr started.

"Why?" May asked.

"Are?" Jimmy said after being released from Rebekah.

"We?" Mariko said in confusion.

"Talking…" Brendan added.

"Like," Rebekah continued.

"This…" said a voice from behind them.

Angel turned around but there was no one there so the whole group shrugged in unison and continued to the port, which was only about a kilometre away. May continuing to clutch her mallet dangerously close to Brendan's head while walking and Brendan was keeping a safe distance away. Angel was sure that the voice she had heard was Jake's voice and felt the pendant against her chest, sighing slightly. Kerr was talking to Sirius and Angel glanced at him strangely as he seemed to be having a full conversation with the Dark Pokemon. Shaking her head Angel pressed on while May berated Brendan for scaring her back at the Pokemon Center. Jimmy and Rebekah were still kissing and Gray was quietly conversing with Mariko while they walked. Feeling left out Angel slumped her shoulders and called a halt as they had been walking for nearly three hours straight.

"Finally! I was hoping to get a break," said a bored Brendan.

"For once I agree with you… Brandon," May joked.

Brendan glared at her before sitting against a tree and pulling a Gameboy SP from his bag. May sat next to him to watch as she had nothing better to do until Gray got an idea and spread it around.

"Why aren't we training our pokemon?" she asked.

Angel blinked and realised that apart from them feeding their pokemon they hadn't let them have much exercise. She shrugged and pulled the six pokeballs off her belt and threw them out.

"Come on out everyone!" she cried.

Her Manyula, Ice, was the first to appear and it drew out its retractable claws before practicing slashes and stabs at thin air. Next was her green Chimecho, she had called it Belle, and the female Chimecho anchored itself to the tree Brendan was under and swayed happily, a faint ringing coming from her. Then Angel's new Shedinja, aptly named Abyss, popped out and floated in midair, not moving even an inch. Then her Linoone, Kaminari, her new Surskit, Dewdrop, and her Manetric, Static, burst into existence. However Angel's baby Articuno, now called Blizzard, stayed in her backpack fast asleep. Gray was thoroughly impressed and clapped her hands before tossing out her Trapinch's ball. The Ground-type looked at Gray and licked her feet but Gray leapt into the air to avoid the inevitable bite.

"Spyke likes you a lot Gray," Kerr stated, remembering Gray's name for the pokemon. "But I'll let out my pokemon too."

Kerr drew out four five pokeballs and threw the out together. They all burst open and everyone sweatdropped when they saw an Umbreon, an Espeon, a Vaporeon, a Jolteon, and a Flareon. Kerr shrugged but even further confused the group when he addressed the pokemon.

"Flash, Flare, Foam, Fang, Fuchsia come here!" he asked as the Eevee evolutions looked around them.

The five pokemon ran over to Kerr and happily nuzzled against him as Rebekah released her pokemon. There was a Ponyta, a Quilava (the Cyndaquil evolved), a Relicanth, a Blaziken, a Rhydon, and an Arcanine. Sirius' ears perked up when he saw the female Arcanine and padded over to introduce himself.

"_Hi there… My name's Sirius," _said the Dark hound.

"_Not interested," _the Arcanine replied indifferently.

"_I merely wished to meet you. That is all," _Sirius said, hurt, as he walked away.

The Arcanine paused as if in thought and followed Sirius. Sirius turned and looked at the Arcanine in confusion but the "Legendary" Pokemon just sat down next to him and they began talking to each other, Sirius looking a lot happier.

May shrugged and pulled five balls from her belt.

"Go!" she cried shortly.

Out of the five balls came Munchlax, Delcatty, Bulbasaur, Wartortle, and Combusken. May greeted them and explained that they could have a few hours of doing what they wanted. Combusken cried in happiness and immediately began doing press-ups. The rest talked, went to eat something, or chased their tail.

Brendan looked over the small army of pokemon and threw out six pokeballs without looking up from his game. He cursed as his Ultra Ball failed to capture Rayquaza… But out of his real pokeballs came Muddy the Swampert, Octillery, Cloud the Altaria, El Loco the Ludicolo, Ember the Ninetails, and Adamantite the Skarmory as Brendan called them out. He told them they had a few hours free time and the pokemon all went off to do their own things like May's had.

Mariko nodded to herself and threw out her own six pokeballs.

"Go! Hydro, Aquaria, Nemo, Marlin, Manny, and Misty!" she cried happily.

Out of the six balls came healthy looking pokemon who all turned to their trainer and tried to hug her but those who couldn't just settled to be near her. There was her Wartortle, a Lapras, a Mantine, a Gorebyss, a Huntail, and a Magikarp in the group. Nearby was a pond, which Mariko but Nemo, her Magikarp in so that he could swim peacefully. Misty the Lapras satisfied herself by swimming in the deeper end slowly so that she could just relax. Manny the Mantine stayed as close to Mariko as he could and cuddled into her feet as Mariko laughed. Marlin and Aquaria the Huntail and Gorebyss, who could slither on land, where soon entwined with each other and doing the serpent equivalent of kissing, which made Gray smile. Finally everyone had all their pokemon except May still had one more in a special ball that, after stern talking to by Angel, she let out. In a flash of red light and with a mystical cry of sweet innocence came out May's (kinda temporary) Latias. Kerr, Mariko and Gray stared with open mouths at the cute, yet graceful Dragon-type as she levitated next to May, hugging her with small arms. May giggled but told Latias to just have fun with all the other pokemon. Latias looked sad but brightened and in a small flash of white light, turned into a human with medium length brown hair, with tufts like Latias' ears, a green shirt and white shorts. Kerr's jaw dropped even further and Gray was inputting Latias' info into her new pokedex. Mariko however had slowly walked right up to Latias and, with a single finger, touched her arm. Latias gave her a funny look but smiled all the same.

"Gray, Mariko, and Kerr… meet Latias," May said politely.

"Angel may have two Articuno's but Latias is just magnificent," Kerr said softly. "Wow."

Latias skipped over to him and waved cheerily. Kerr waved feebly back but Latias didn't mind and surrounded herself with Kerr's Eevee-evolutions, who seemed to like her. May then began to explain Latias' almost strange behaviour.

"Latias can't talk when she's in her human form. I taught her sign language but no-one but Brendan and me know it. Then again when Latias is in her normal form she can communicate telepathically with everyone," May said unsurely.

"Well that's a shock… when will Latias go back to her normal form?" Angel called from the tree branches.

"What are you doing up there?" Jimmy called as he released his pokemon finally.

His Typhlosion, Beedrill, Azumarril, Kirlia, Nidoking, Solrock burst free from their balls and thanks to Solrock's psychic abilities, knew exactly what was going on. After that they went their own ways while Brendan's Altaria tried to butter up Latias with no success at all, as Latias was playing on a portable swing that Jimmy's Kirlia had conjured and Angel had tied up. The Altaria sweatdropped and flew into the tree, content to just watch the legendary dragon.

"Just hanging around," she answered to Jimmy's open question.

0o0o0o0o0o0

On a rock in the middle of a clearing sat a young boy with grey hair and dark glasses. He wore a scarf and baggy, yet graceful, clothes that made him look mysterious yet cool. The boy was staring into the trees as if he could see something and if he could see through solid matter then he would see a group of boys, girls, and pokemon playing happily. His eyes, which were usually red, where grey-ish in colour letting him see through the trees as if they weren't there. This is because this boy was Jake, the world's only Ditto-morph and he was infused with Dark-type powers after Mightyena had attacked him. As he sat on the rock he watched in amusement as the blue-haired girl from the group pulled out a pokenav from her coat and started fiddling with it.

"Hmm… this could be fun," Jake muttered.

Jake reached into his pockets and pulled out a silver pokenav of his own and selected a number from the list on the small screen. The 'Match Call' feature dialled and Jake, his hearing beyond that of any human's, heard the girl's pokenav ring.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel was just finished adding the "Ash Ketchum" number to her pokenav and was about to turn off the device when it began ringing. Angel stared at it and flipped the device open, holding it to her ear. May, who had been watching Angel with the excitement of being able to call Ash, looked in curiosity but was shooed away by Angel.

"Hello?" Angel asked.

"Hello Angel. Remember me?" said a distinctive male voice from the device.

"J-Jake? Is that you?" Angel whispered.

"Ci mi amigo," said Jake, laughing.

"Why are you calling?" Angel asked sadly, wanting to see him in person.

"Oh I just needed someone to talk to. It's lonely just watching someone without saying hello once in a while," Jake replied cheerfully.

Angel blushed at the implications of being watched and thought back to when Jake was just another guy, albeit the guy she loved. There was laughter on the other side of the phone.

"Yeah I remember that too," Jake said. "And I'm working on this shadow stuff in my head. I might have it cracked soon…"

"That's brilliant Jake!" Angel whispered happily. "But I gotta go… May wants to call someone."

"I know. Her head's just screaming of Ash Ketchum," Jake replied moodily.

"Sorry. Bye Jake," Angel whispered.

"Goodbye… my Angel," Jake returned.

Then the line went dead but Angel was feeling happier than she had in days. Not only did Jake call her but he still possibly loved her! Angel thought it was too good to be true but then she remembered what he had said.

"_I'm working on the shadow stuff in my head. I might have it cracked soon…"_

Angel realized then that Jake did want to be with her and her friends again but because of his now dark and slightly corrupt spirit he didn't want to endanger them. This made Angel happier and she sighed as she relaxed against the tree trunk, on the other side of where Brendan was. She pocketed the pokenav but an impatient noise from May made her groan and take it out again. May squealed happily.

"Thanks Angel!!!" she cried as she ran off with it.

Angel moaned in annoyance and watched the rest of the party as Gray challenged Rebekah to Twister with Mariko being the judge. There was Jimmy dancing next to a radio with May while Brendan still played on his Gameboy. But Kerr was linking his own Gameboy SP to Brendan's and they were button-mashing to whatever game they were playing. So, for now, it was just Angel all by herself.

"Hi Angel…" came a voice from behind her.

_At the same time…_

May made an impatient clucking noise as the pokenav slowly rang the number she had dialled. She had wanted this chance for almost a full month and finally she had it but she was irritable when it didn't ring fast enough. Finally there was a clicking noise as May heard the pokenav at the other end be answered. A cool, familiar male voice floated through the filters and warmed May's heart.

"Hello?"

May almost cried with joy but held it in as she responded.

"Hi… is that you Ash?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, who's this?" Ash replied.

May's heart sank a little but she told herself that Ash hadn't ever heard her on a phone and cleared her throat.

"It's me May!" she answered happily.

"_It's me May!"_

Ash nearly choked on the can of soda he was drinking but a shock from Pikachu knocked him out of it and he panted for breath as he tried to calm his nerves.

"Oh May! Is it really you?" Ash asked through the nav.

"Yes it's me silly!" she replied cheekily. "Who else knows Max's number?"

"Umm… Misty, Brock, Harrison, and other people whose names I can't recall at the time," he replied.

"Oh… ok," May said a little sadly.

"But right now they don't matter! How've you been May? Have you caught any new pokemon? Have any evolved?" Ash asked rapidly.

May laughed and heard a small flutter behind her. May turned and saw that it was just Latias watching her. May beckoned Latias over and got her to listen in on the conversation.

"Well you could say that Ash… Squirtle evolved and so did Skitty," she answered. "And I've seen about two legendaries."

The woofers on the pokenav nearly blew out as Ash yelled out a "WOW!" of amazement into the nav. May winced but Latias leaned in closer to the nav while hovering. Finally after a few seconds it seemed like Ash had calmed down. May could hear heavy breathing through the headset on the nav as Ash tried to get his breath back.

"Two legendaries? What were they?" Ash asked excitedly. "By the way Max and Brock are currently absent so we have a little while to ourselves."

"Well I saw Noland's Articuno again. Noland of the Battle Factory…" May replied. "And a Latias."

"A Latias eh?" Ash asked. "It's a shame you didn't catch it."

"Actually… I did," May replied sheepishly.

This time the woofers almost combusted. It was thanks to May holding the nav away from her ear that stopped her from going deaf. She could heard Ash going hyper through the nav and started laughing, Latias joining in and Ash heard her. If May could see him then she would see that he was scratching his head in thought. Finally he spoke…

"I've seen a Latias too… She always turned into Bianca. Bianca was a nice girl… She was an artist," Ash reminisced. "She had hair a little like yours May but with big tufts like a Latias' ears. She always wore green and white as well."

May looked oddly at Latias next to her who was sad, hearing Ash's voice but seeing him.

"Um Ash? I think these are the same Latias…" she said quietly.

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"Where are you heading next?" Ash asked.

"We're going to Mossdeep now," May replied.

More silence…

"I'll see you there," Ash finally said. "All League participants had to move to Mossdeep 'cause Ever Grande was hit by some kinda earthquake."

May sweatdropped but remained silent as Ash said his goodbyes and hung up. Then she stood shakily and leapt into the air with a huge "Yay!!"

0o0o0o0o0o0

"Alright everyone pack up we're moving out!" Angel called loudly.

"Alright! Finally!" Brendan screamed as he jumped to his feet.

"Yee-haw!" Rebekah cried as she ran up a tree and flipped off to finish her exercising.

Everyone recalled their pokemon except May who had Latias stay in her "human-form" so that she could stay out of her ball. At least she had finally mastered speaking telepathically while in this form.

"_Where are we going May?" _She asked.

"Mossdeep City. It's an island like Alto-Mare but without the canals," May replied.

Unexpectedly Latias' eyes began to water and May saw this, but it was too late. Latias burst into tears and everyone stopped as May tried to calm the upset Eon-pokemon. Finally May got desperate and pulled her bandanna off. Latias just cried from her spot on the ground as May reached into the bandanna and pulled out a photo.

"Latias look!" May exclaimed.

Latias wiped her eyes and looked at the photo. Miraculously she cheered up instantly and took the photo while she and everyone else started walking again. Brendan sidled along side Latias and tried to look at the photo but Latias was smart and kept turning it away from him at the last second. Brendan huffed and sped up slightly, walking up to May who was humming to herself. He glanced at her and realized that she was oblivious to his presence. Well it was time to change that…

"Boo!!!"

**End of chapter 13. Had fun… explained a lot and am now looking forward to chapter 14: Family Reunions. But for now just please read and review…**


	15. Chapter 15: Love Binds Us

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon… duh**

_**Well I know it's been a while but here's the next best update for Dark Angel. There's a surprise at the very beginning here but there's more to it than that. Hah! So anyway if Robin reads this then hi!! So let's go… Oh and to the Mizu Star girl… I have a plot twist for your proposed character! (0.)**_

**Chapter 1****5: Family Reunions**

May screamed again as Brendan shouted in her ear. Latias started giggling mutely and still stared at the picture in her hand (to see what it has on it read the story "Shades of Gray" by GigaFlareon!). May began shouting angrily at Brendan again for scaring her once more but the white haired boy completely ignored her, his laughter was too loud for him to hear anyway. Meanwhile Gray spontaneously challenged Rebekah to a race to the ferry for Mossdeep, which was a couple of hundred meters away now. The two girls ran off and Mariko shouted after them in vain, not wanting to be left behind.

"Damn it! I wish I could go as fast as that…" she said sadly.

"Hey. I could give you a lift," Kerr said.

"Huh?" almost everyone asked.

Kerr stopped and screwed his face up in concentration. Like Angel's and Rebekah's transformation he started glowing but instead of a glow it was a brilliant luminaire like a pokemon evolving. Mariko blinked the light away and rubbed her eyes when a large Jolteon sat next to her.

"Is that you Kerr?" she asked.

"Jolt-jolt!" said the pokemon.

"I'll take that as a yes…" Mariko said.

Kerr stood again and Mariko noticed that he was up to her waist level in height. Kerr looked at Mariko and she willed herself to understand the meaning of the look. Suddenly, like a light bulb going on, it came to her. Mariko gingerly threw a leg over Kerr's back and sat on his spiky, blonde body. Kerr had no trouble standing upright and began to trot along quickly.

"Is this it? Wait… too fast! Ahhhhh!!!" Mariko screamed as Kerr moved faster still.

Kerr had turned himself into a moving lightning bolt and was streaking along the ground too fast for a person to see for more than a second. Mariko had to cling onto his ears tightly to stop her from flying off. The electric duo flew straight between Gray and Rebekah while Mariko kept on screaming. Mariko spotted Gray running faster out of the corner of her eye but even the thought of Gray coming to rescue her couldn't stop Mariko from screaming blue murder. In less than four seconds Kerr grinded to a halt next the boarding ramp to the ferry and Mariko got quickly off him, as the nausea of moving so fast caught up with her.

"Get away from her!"

Kerr turned and jumped back as Gray ran over to Mariko and pulled her into her arms. Kerr grunted and transformed back into his human form, scowling. He glared at Gray, who let go of Mariko in surprise.

"Well that's nice of you! I give your girlfriend a lift for nothing and you go yell at me!" he pouted.

"Girlfriend?"

Gray winced and turned to Rebekah, but not before promising Kerr a painful death with one of her famous red-eyed glares. Kerr sweatdropped nervously and ran onto the ferry before Gray could inflict any lasting damage. Suddenly a stampede of footsteps became detectable and the three trainers turned to see Angel and the others running onto the scene (apart from Latias who skipped along happily). Gray heard Rebekah talking to herself and she distinctly heard the words 'love' and 'lesbians'. She turned and gave Rebekah a death glare which sent the Rapidash-morph into a huff. She stomped onto the ferry after Kerr and Gray turned to follow but bumped into something and fell on her ass. A figure near Gray's height, with grey hair and dark clothing, was standing in front of her. She looked up and saw that it was a boy, around thirteen who was quite tall and thin, with metallic grey hair and a light brown scarf around his neck. His black irises reminded her of holes but these ones were filled with a warmth and kindness that made her smile as she got to her feet.

"Sorry there. I didn't see you," the boy said as he stepped around Gray.

Gray was then about to get onto the boat, finally, when a scream of delight stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Jake!!!"

Gray whirled around and saw Angel, tears appearing in her eyes, staring at the boy with happiness erupting from the huge smile on her face. Gray then turned to the boy and gasped. It was Jake!!! But he looked so different apart from his eyes… Gray turned back to Angel in time to see her happy face turn into one of anger.

"I'm gonna freakin' kill you!" she screamed.

Jake jumped over the Water Pulse launched at him and backpedaled to the edge of the harbor. Angel ran forwards, intent on attacking Jake, but the Ditto-morph adjusted his legs in a millisecond and leapt backwards, high into the air. He landed silently on the ship and Angel chased after him. Jimmy and Latias shared a confused look while May and Brendan glanced at each other.

"Lover's quarrel," they said together.

Jimmy stuffed a fist into his mouth to stop himself laughing as the last of them boarded the ferry, finally ready to go to Mossdeep.

0o0o0o0o0o0

On board the ship Angel was walking slowly and quietly down a corridor, searching for Jake. In her head we see a flashback; these happen a lot, back to when Angel and the gang were resting before getting to the harbor…

_Flashback_

"_Hello Angel…"_

_Angel turned and spotted a young boy, around 13, with light grey hair and dark clothes. A long brown scarf was wrapped around the boy's neck and black eyes stared at Angel wistfully. Angel felt tears form in her eyes as she stared at the face of the boy whom she loved so much… the one person who she thought she'd hardly see again… the one boy who changed her life forever. Jake…_

"_Jake your eyes! Their back to normal!" Angel cried in surprise._

"_Nice to see you Jake… I love you too," Jake replied sarcastically. _

"_So… what happened to you? What was the darkness thing for?" Angel asked, ignoring the previous statement._

"_Well it appears that Jade had one last laugh before she died. You know how the Mightyena attacked us? Well I did catch pokerus from them but once May tranquilized me my immune system got rid of it. But none of us knew so I thought it was still there. But then when Jade appeared she did something to me. Like how a Shadow pokemon is created she slightly closed the door to my heart, increasing my strength but lowering my emotional capacity a lot…" Jake explained._

"_Wow… that's really weird. It's a good thing you got rid of it," Angel replied. "How did you?"_

"_Umm… fine I won't lie. I went for a massage," Jake said. "That's one of three ways to purify a Shadow Pokemon. The other two ways are to battle with a good trainer but I could've killed them and the other is to stay at a daycare center but I'd probably kill them too…" Jake trailed off when he saw Angel's vein throbbing in her temple._

"_YOU MEAN YOU WENT FOR A MASSAGE?" she half shouted. "…well how was it?"_

"_Umm… pretty good actually," Jake replied with a sheepish grin._

_Angel's eyes clouded over and one of her hands lit up in her signature move. Jake sweatdropped and backed away slowly._

"_I think I'll be going. Meet you at the docks!" he said before running into the shadows._

"_Get back here!" Angel screamed in vain._

_End Flashback_

_  
_Angel was ecstatic that Jake could finally travel with them again but she was temporarily insane that he went off and got a free massage from some hooker that probably just wanted to feel him up. Since no one was onboard the ship yet apart from her and her friends Angel was punching in each door as she came to it, leaving her own room as she found it. Angel had previously asked to see what rooms her friends had so that when she came bashing in she could leave out her friends in case they were doing something. Maybe Jake was somewhere else…

With Jake himself…

Jake breathed a sigh of relief as he heard Angel pass by the room he was in. That girl would probably be the end of him but he'd still love her for eternity. Just as Jake was able to collect his thoughts and get ready to make his escape there were a new set of footsteps approaching the room. Jake listened with all his might and heard Gray talking to someone, most likely it was Mariko with her. Jake remembered that they had actually gotten the room he was hiding in. With a flash he turned into a tall lamp and hid on the small table just as Gray stepped into the room with a giggling Mariko clutching her arm. Jake raised a mental eyebrow but widened his mental eyes when Gray locked the door and pushed Mariko down onto the bed. Being a lampshade Jake could see everything mentally, which meant he couldn't look away even if he wanted to. Gray pulled her jacket off and crawled onto the bed next to Mariko. Jake was slightly aroused but very afraid of the repercussions of hiding there. By now Gray and Mariko were topless and in a very intense tongue war. Jake dog whistled in his mind and alter his memory to give himself a photographic memory. Suddenly Jake found that the two girls in the room had removed all their clothes… (And since this is PG-13 I'll leave you to fill in the gap with your own imagination!)

0o0o0o0o0o0

Rebekah wandered down the corridor on the SS Vortex, with nothing particular on her mind. She had been with jimmy most of the day and had suggested that they go somewhere separate themselves to have some time to themselves. Jimmy had reluctantly agreed and now Rebekah was at a loss of what to do by herself. Fortunately salvation came in the form of Jake, who was red in the face and breathing heavily outside one of the ship's many cabins.

"What happened in there? Did Angel get you?" Rebekah asked with a grin.

"No actually… I just saw something really embarrassing and don't want to repeat it to mortal ears," Jake replied jokingly.

"Hold on, let me guess… was it Gray and Mariko in there?" Rebekah asked.

"What are you spying on them?" Jake asked in shock.

"NO!!!... It was just a guess," Rebekah said quickly. "… Was it good?"

"Very. But don't tell Angel or Jimmy," Jake said with a laugh.

"Very true… they'd kill us!" Rebekah replied. "But I'd best be going. I need to find a place to practice my fire moves."

Rebekah turned to walk away from Jake but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. She turned and saw Jake with an excited gleam in his eyes. Rebekah raised an eyebrow and Jake looked at her.

"What move did you have in mind?" he asked.

"Umm… I was going to try Overheat," Rebekah said shyly.

Jake put his hands together after letting go of Rebekah and concentrated. He slowly pulled his hands apart and forming between them was a shiny red disk that Rebekah recognized as a TM or Technical Machine. Jake finished forming it and handed it to a nonplussed Rebekah.

"That TM50 Overheat. It has one use so don't waste it okay?" Jake explained.

"You mean this will actually teach me Overheat?" Rebekah asked excitedly.

"Duh. I could give you the TM for Flamethrower too but making complex things like TM's takes energy so give me a few hours okay?" Jake replied tiredly.

Rebekah hugged Jake for a second before holding the TM in both hands and furrowing her brow in concentration. The TM disk started glowing and a small beam came from the center of it to Rebekah's forehead. The beam was red but after a second turned green and disappeared. Rebekah let go of the TM and it broke in half before it touched the ground. The remains of the TM were picked up by Jake and absorbed back into him through his hand.

"Eww… that's kinda gross. But thanks Jake!" Rebekah said happily.

"Anytime. I just pray that Angel doesn't want to learn Ice Ball," Jake said with a repressed shudder.

Rebekah laughed and walked off, almost skipping. Jake watched her go and eventually decided to move too before Angel caught him. Leaving in the opposite direction Jake turned a corner and was met with a pair of angry red eyes. He gulped, seeing his life flash before his eyes.

"Umm… I don't suppose I could apologize could I?" he asked before Angel pounced on him.

After punching Jake in the face continuously for over ten minutes Angel finally decided that it was ineffective. Jake merely had in face cave inwards whenever she punched him, rendering himself unhurt. Angel stood up, straightening her hair, and glaring down at Jake, who was also getting up off the floor.

"Well? Aren't you going to let me hurt you?" Angel asked.

Jake looked at Angel incredulously.

"Let me think…. NO!" he replied.

Angel slumped her shoulders and sighed in defeat. Jake raised an eyebrow and put a hand on one of Angel's shoulders. Angel looked at him like he was crazy but Jake closed the distance between them and planted a rubbery, yet loving kiss on her lips. Angel's mind went straight to the 4th of July and she couldn't help but let out a small moan of longing. Jake let her go and laughed slightly.

"Hey Angel why are you so down? I'm back aren't I? And I still love you more than life itself!" Jake exclaimed.

"I know… but what'll we do Jake? We're going to Mossdeep but we're no where closer to taking out Team Rocket or Teams Magma and Aqua. I feel like we're pursuing a hopeless quest," Angel said sadly. "But I wanna beat them so bad and make them pay for all the bad things they've done!"

Jake's eyes softened with Angel's words and he felt himself jolt when the ship started moving. He'd completely forgotten that other trainers were boarding the ship! Angel gave Jake a look that spoke of nothing but boredom so Jake thought hard to come up with a fun activity for the both of them and one of his hands strayed to his pokeball belt. Then it came to him!

"How about we go battle bored trainers?" Jake asked.

Angel clapped her hands happily.

"Hell yeah!" she exclaimed.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Brendan and May were tied up in their own battle as a Young Couple had just challenged them a True Double Battle. Brendan and May held their pokeballs at the ready while the other couple did likewise. Luckily they were on the main deck so there was plenty room to move. Brendan and May were the first to call out their pokemon.

"Go Combusken!" May called.

"Go Adamantite!" Brendan shouted too.

May's Combusken and Brendan's Skarmory looked at each other and smiled in a friendly manner. Well as much as they could being a chicken and a can opener. The Young Couple tossed out their own pokeballs and out came a Dewgong and a Slowbro. Brendan smirked while May started worrying about Combusken's safety.

"Combusken be careful!" May called.

"Busken-combusken," said the chicken cockily. (I can take them)

_**BATTLE SITUATION**_

_**May's Combusken and Brendan's Skarmory vs Young Couple's Dewgong and Slowbro**_

_**2-on-2 battle with no substitutes.**_

_**BATTLE COMMENCE!!!**_

"Let's do this! Adamantite Fly!" Brendan called.

"Combusken hitch a ride!" May added quickly.

Like a jet, the steel bird quickly ascended but Combusken managed to leap onto its back and hold onto its smooth steel neck. The bird quickly pointed its sharp beak at the Slowbro and headed in for the hit but the Young Couple were ready.

"Slowbro use Confusion! Knock them out the air!" the man said.

"Dewgong pitch in with Ice Beam!" the woman responded.

The mighty Dewgong powered up an Ice Beam at the tip of its horn and the Slowbro glowed with a pink aura. Brendan winced and shouted at the same time as May.

"Dodge!" they called.

Adamantite dived straight down to avoid the Psychic wave but was struck in the left wing with the Ice Beam and crashed to the deck, Combusken sliding off its back. May took the initiative and ordered Combusken to use his momentum to use brick break on Dewgong. Combusken flew forwards like he had wings and drove a brown, glowing fist into the Dewgong's gut, badly injuring it.

"Grr… Dewgong use Bubblebeam! Show that chicken who's boss!" the woman cried angrily.

The Dewgong breathed in deeply and let fly with a barrage of blue bubbles that burst over Combusken, quickly draining his strength. Unfortunately Adamantite was entangled with the Slowbro and couldn't help and so Combusken was left to cry out in pain as the assault continued.

"Stop! I give up! My Combusken needs help!" May cried.

The woman didn't listen and had her Dewgong continue its attack on May's pokemon. May felt tears form in her eyes and ran forward into the battle zone.

"I'm coming Combusken!" she cried.

Sliding across the polished floor May placed herself directly between Combusken and the attack, getting caught full on by the attack. May screamed as the bubbles burst with the force of a fist being drove in her stomach and Brendan yelped in surprise.

"May get back!" he yelled.

"Leave Combusken alone!!!" May screamed furiously at the woman, who was too shocked by May's actions to say anything.

"Coommbbuusskkeenn!!!!!" a battlecry roared behind May.

Injured and badly bruised May fell back and spotted Combusken next to her. The amazing thing was that Combusken was on his feet! With a bird like roar he began to glow a fiery red color and opened his beak wide. A ball of fire hot energy collected in the back of his throat and Combusken let loose a magnificent Overheat attack on the Dewgong. The unsuspecting pokemon was badly burned by the attack and fainted from heat exhaustion by the time the attack finished.

"Dewgong return!" the woman shouted.

The beaten Water pokemon was returned to its ball while Combusken stood over May, who was clutching her stomach in agony.

"I'm so sorry Combusken. I didn't want you getting hurt but I just got in the way…" May whispered quietly. "Forgive me."

Combusken let out a low moan, tears streaming down his bird-like face but they quickly turned to tears of guilt. He thought it was his fault for not getting out of the way… Combusken clenched his claws and roared in anger, and then began glowing. May looked up in surprise as the fowl pokemon began growing to an alarming size. When the light from the glowing finally dissipated there was a tall, near seven foot, Blaziken standing in Combusken's place. The Blaze pokemon roared loudly and lit his wrists, ready to fight again but was disappointed when Adamantite finished the Slowbro with a Steel Wing. Brendan cheered but May whimpered in pain, clutching her stomach. The Young Couple finished returning their pokemon and stormed off, paying the injured trainer no mind.

"Blaziken!" May's new pokemon shouted at Brendan.

"Oh god May!" Brendan shouted as he ran over to her. "Holy shit are you alright?"

May just moaned quietly and passed out from pain. Blaziken picked her up easily and Brendan beckoned the pokemon to follow him. He ran down the length of the ship swiftly, dodging other trainers and the like as he neared his cabin. His hands were shaking so bad that he dropped his cardkey twice before finally fitting it in the lock and rushing inside. Blaziken stooped low to enter but Adamantite squawked in protest at the small door. Brendan absent-mindedly returned it and brought out another ball.

"Octillery I need you!" Brendan said as he opened the octopus' ball.

Octillery came out and gazed around bleakly.

"Octillery I need you to use Bubblebeam and Ice Beam at the same time to make small chunks of ice!" Brendan commanded. "May's been hurt bad."

Octillery took in the severity of the situation and did as Brendan asked to make small spheres of ice, which Brendan put in a small sack.

"Mew, protect me," Brendan pleaded as he undid the zip on May's top.

He closed his eyes and pulled the shirt over May's head, thanking the Legends that she was wearing a bra. May's stomach was a mess of bruises and her chest wasn't much worse. Brendan assessed the damage and muttered a few choice words before pressing the ice pack on the center of her ribcage, right between her breasts. May's unconscious whimpers toned down a little and her eyes opened a crack.

"Brendan?" she asked hoarsely.

"Yeah May?" Brendan asked quietly.

"Why is my shirt off?" she asked innocently.

"You're really hurt so I'm using an ice pack to reduce the swelling," Brendan quickly explained.

May chuckled but winced in pain.

"Those are my boobs not swellings," she muttered.

Brendan looked down and realized that he had moved the ice pack until it had settled on top of her left breast and quickly rectified the mistake.

"Sorry May. But we did it! We won the match…" Brendan said.

"I suppose you think I was really stupid jumping in front of an attack like that?" May said.

"Not at all. I mean you could've returned Combusken but you had to act and we sometimes do crazy things to protect the ones we love," Brendan said wisely.

"Like undress them?" May asked, her tone steely.

"NO! Well… that is… um…" Brendan trailed off as his vocabulary quickly became a series of indistinct words.

"It's alright I forgive you. But I love someone else… sorry Brendan," May said gently.

Brendan felt his hand on the ice pack clench slightly and tried to calm himself.

"Who do you like?" he asked.

"I think I'm in love with Ash Ketchum!"

**Well that was fun!!! I think May's the best and was sorry to hurt her but it's the only way you Hoennshippers will see any action because this still has Advanceshipping so there!**


	16. Chapter 16: Me, Myself and Others

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon.**

_**To my readers:**_

_**Thanks for waiting. I've been doing a lot… (updating Shades of Gray) and trying to get these two stories to run smoothly together. But don't worry. They'll break apart soon and it'll just be Angel and the others, without Gray and her small team.**_

**Chapter 1****6: Mighty Mishaps**

_Earlier…_

Angel sighed to herself. All the trainers on the ship were too tired to battle so her and Jake were left to wander the halls of the ship while wondering what the hell to do. Jake was silent but Angel was making her displeasure known to everyone around her.

"This is so boring!" she whined.

Jake sighed and looked up, his eyes going x-ray. Above them was a large depression a few decks up. Jake noticed a figure in it and went slightly red when he recognised it as Rebekah, but his x-ray eyes were piercing right through her clothes. Jake looked down again and used up his considerable will power not to look again. Suddenly he recognised what it was that Rebekah was in.

"Hey Angel?" Jake asked.

"Yeah… what is it?" Angel replied, with a yawn.

"How about we go swimming? There's a pool on the top deck," Jake answered.

Angel gave Jake a look so happy that he could've turned into a Luvdisc just to be held by her. She grinned and whipped out her cabin card, while Jake pulled out his own.

"Lucky I have something to swim in!" Angel exclaimed happily as she ran to her cabin, which was conveniently just a few doors ahead.

Jake sighed and followed her in before she closed the door on him.

"I'll change in the bathroom!" Angel declared before rushing into the lavatory all cabin's came with.

Jake grinned slightly and clapped his hands twice. Instantly his clothes morphed into a pair of grey swimming trunks that came halfway down his thighs, leaving his slightly muscular build visible to all. With a sigh of content Jake sat on Angel's bed and waited for her return. After a few minutes the door opened and Jake looked over expectantly. There was Angel… in a black two-piece swimming suit with ice patterns on it. Jake fought hard not to drool but noticed her wings, which were painfully obvious. Angel was looking worried about them but Jake held up a single white robe that came with the room.

"Wow this place has nearly everything!" Angel exclaimed as she slipped on the robe.

"Yeah. Good thing I'm polymorphic or I'd probably get cold," Jake said.

Angel playfully punched Jake on the shoulder… and yelped when her fist went straight through him. Jake laughed happily as Angel fearfully removed her fist from him.

"Do you like that trick?" Jake asked. "It's like trying to catch smoke with your hands!"

"Don't do that!" Angel squealed as she and Jake left the cabin and made their way up the decks.

"Why?" Jake asked.

"That really scared me!" Angel replied angrily.

Jake chuckled and nodded ahead when he and Angel went through the last door to the Poke-Olympic sized swimming pool. Angel grinned when Rebekah fell into the pool and as she watched the chaos Gray smacked Jimmy into the pool as well. Jake noticed that almost everyone was here save from Kerr, May, and Brendan. Even Latias was there, in a red and white swimming suit that helped bring out her curvy, human figure. Her golden eyes were glowing blue slightly and Jake noticed a haze over the pool area that wasn't there before. Meanwhile Angel snuck up behind Gray and pushed the poor Houndoom-morph into the pool.

"I thought it was a game," Angel laughed while Jake laughed at her side.

Angel's robe was now absent and Jake saw her wings flutter slightly but they were shimmering and transparent as if they weren't really there. Jake then turned to the angered Gray and looked her over, but put a Dark-type filter over his eyesight. Doing so made his eyes water and he couldn't hold it for more than a few seconds until he had to make his eyes normal again. But he'd seen what he needed to…

"Why is Angel out here when her wings are visible?" Gray asked Jake.

Angel then jumped into the pool, making everyone scream as the water briefly went to zero degrees and then up again as Gray and Rebekah heated up. Jake gave Gray a look of surprise after her question but stopped to think about it. Then it was gone but she was still looking confused so Jake elaborated.

"Latias is using her psychic powers to fool everyone into thinking Angel's wings, your tail and so on aren't actually there. It's a form of brainwashing," he answered smoothly.

"Oh…" was all Gray could say in response.

Jake smiled in amusement and jumped two meters into the air, putting a flip and half twist into his dive, landing in the pool with a large splash. Angel held up a laminated card with a big 10 on it and everyone sweatdropped with randomness again. Everyone waited… Jake didn't surface. Suddenly Angel screamed as something grabbed her leg. Jake popped up, out of the water, laughing his ass off.

"Jake!!!" Angel screamed.

No one noticed Gray and Mariko leaving the pool area as Angel chased Jake out of the pool, picking up her robe as she did so. Jake, fearing for himself (there are only 2 things that hurt Jake in his human form. Ice and Fire), ran like a scared Stantler and galloped down the corridor and phased through a door, leaving Angel to think he'd disappeared.

_Now…_

"Woo!" Jake cried.

"Alright!" Angel added.

"Oh Yeah! Let's bring this one home," Jake said once more.

Our favorite pair was just starting up a good battle using two pokemon each against a Dragon Tamer and a Hiker, who were using a Kingdra and a Nosepass. Jake had summoned Ducky, his Milotic, and Angel was using Static, her new Manetric. They had just gone through the first round of attacks and the Nosepass was slightly injured while the Kingdra had avoided its intended attack.

_**BATTLE SITUATION!!!**_

_**Static and Ducky vs. Nosepass and Kingdra**_

_**Two vs. Two, One-on-One**_

_**BATTLE BEGIN!!!**_

"Right then Ducky, use Water Pulse on Nosepass!" Jake commanded.

"Nosepass use Thunder Wave to block!" the Hiker retaliated.

Ducky opened her mouth and a glowing blue ball formed in front of it, growing bigger and stronger with every second. With a cry of battle Ducky launched the aquatic attack but the Nosepass had built up kinetic energy spinning its short arms in a circle and used its large nose as a launcher to blow a ball of blue electricity though the Pulse, canceling it out, and striking Ducky.

"Static, now use a Double Edge! Protect Ducky!" Angel cried.

"Kingdra use Water Gun!" the Dragon Tamer said calmly.

Static leaped forward to crash into Nosepass but was blown aside by a powerful jet of water from the Kingdra. Angel allowed herself a small smile of satisfaction with the turn of events. Jake grinned as well.

"Ducky use Refresh to get rid of Paralysis!" he ordered.

"Static, use Charge now to build up power!" Angel said afterwards.

"So going for a final attack eh?" the Hiker commented. "Fine then… Nosepass use Zap Cannon on the Milotic!"

"Kingdra use Hyper Beam at Manetric!" the Dragon Tamer added quickly.

Static, soaking wet, rippled with building power and growled menacingly at its opponents, who felt the power of the coming attack. However, Ducky started to glow a soothing white and cleaned herself of her status affliction. Unfortunately the two opponents were building up attacks and the Nosepass fired its Zap Cannon. The Kingdra fired a beam of super-charged particles almost immediately afterwards.

"Static, take the Zap Cannon and use Thunder on Nosepass!" Angel commanded swiftly.

"Ducky you use Protect to block Hyper Beam!" Jake put in.

Ducky coiled up like a spring and launched herself in front of Static, who had just absorbed the Zap Cannon and was preparing for a final, ferocious assault. Ducky put up a glowing golden shield just in time to block the Hyper Beam as Static threw its Thunder attack over Ducky and down on Nosepass. The giant nose was badly electrocuted and fainted from the sheer intensity. However in their victory Angel and Jake had forgotten the Kingdra.

"Now use Dragonbreath on Milotic!" the Dragon guy ordered.

Jake gasped and cried out in shock as the Kingdra let loose a powerful blast of green flames at his pokemon but was surprised when Static jumped in the way and took the attack for Ducky. The Electric-type could only put up with so much after using most of its energy for thunder and fainted.

"Static!" Angel cried. "Alright then, Go Ice!"

"And I'll choose Camerupt!" the Hiker declared.

_**BATTLE SITUATION!!!**_

_**Ice and Ducky vs. Camerupt and Kingdra**_

_**Two vs. Two, One-on-One**_

_**BATTLE BEGIN!!!**_

"Ducky, take down Camerupt with Hydro Pump," Jake said angrily.

"Ice, get close to that Kingdra!" Angel added.

The mighty Manyula unsheathed his claws and leapt up into the air. Ducky let loose an almighty Hydro Pump at the Camerupt, who was oblivious to the battle. At the same time Ducky used her tail to whack Ice at the Kingdra.

"Ice, now use Screech and Crush Claw!" Angel cried.

Ice opened his mouth and a horrible wailing shriek burst from his vocal cords. The poor Kingdra had no hands to cover its ears and was therefore submitted to the full intensity of the attack. With weakened defenses, the Kingdra was no match for the Crush Claw technique of Ice and fell, defeated. The Camerupt was met with similar results and was swiftly beaten by Ducky's attack.

"Ack! Return Camerupt!" the Hiker exclaimed.

"You too Kingdra!" the Dragon Tamer said. "And now for my final pokemon, let's fly Dragonite!"

The powerful and rare Dragonite is one of the most powerful Dragon-types in the entire pokemon world and is most renowned for its ability to use multiple types of attacks.

"Dragonite use Thunder on Milotic!" the DT yelled.

Jake was too stunned by the appearance of such a powerful dragon that Ducky was struck down before he could react and he sadly returned her. The peach colored dragon snorted and drifted on its small wings just above the deck.

"Fine then, if you wanna play then I'll fight fire-with-fire! I choose Inferno," Jake called.

Jake's evolved Charizard burst from its confinement and gave a battle roar so fierce a weak person would hide under a rock and die. The orange dragon-lizard blew a stream of flames in the air, in anticipation for a good fight.

"Together we are stronger, than anyone else could on their own!" declared Angel triumphantly.

"You can't stop us cause together we are strong!" Jake chimed in.

"Ice/Inferno use Hyper Beam!" the couple yelled in unison.

"Noooo!!!" cried the Dragon Tamer as the attacks collided with his pokemon.

"Game over!" Angel yelled.

_**END OF BATTLE!!!**_

"Yee-haw!" Jake cried in victory.

Angel jumped up and punched the air. Then she turned and grabbed Jake in a fierce hug, nearly making him asphyxiate from pressure. Jake tapped her shoulder quickly.

"What?" Angel asked.

"Need… air…" Jake wheezed.

"Oh I'm sorry Jake!" Angel cried, letting him go.

Jake managed to get his breath back quite quickly and motioned for Angel to walk with him.

"Hey Angel what attacks do you know?" Jake asked quietly.

"Umm… Gust, Powder Snow, Mist, Ice Beam, Reflect, Blizzard, Sheer Cold, and Water Pulse. Why'd you ask?" Angel said.

"Need any new attacks?" Jake asked.

"I'd like Ice Ball and maybe another water move but I don't know how to get them…" Angel said.

Jake stopped walking and made sure no one was watching. Angel watched as he put his hands together as if in prayer and slowly parted them. Forming from his hands were several disks that Angel recognized as a few TMs.

"Here," said a panting Jake. "It's the TM for Ice Ball, Aerial Ace, Rain Dance, and Protect."

"I'm already an Aerial Ace…" Angel replied jokingly.

"No this one's an attack," Jake said with a laugh.

"Oh. Well thanks Jake!" Angel said, hugging him again.

Jake steeled himself to hold his breath but his lungs weren't contracting. Jake blinked and looked down slightly to see Angel gently resting on his chest, breathing deeply. A few people passing smiled at this cute sight and a few stopped to watch.

"Don't get too comfortable," Jake warned. "One; you could fall asleep and two, there are people watching."

Angel jumped slightly but got off Jake and sat down on a bench near the side of the ship. Jake thanked whatever God there was that no one saw him conjuring TMs and went to sit down next to his girlfriend. Angel was looking around and putting in the first TM, Aerial Ace. After a minute all the TMs were used and Jake absorbed them back into himself.

"How'd you do that?" Angel asked.

"I can change my very cellular structure. I could make myself a proper, functioning female if I wanted to," Jake replied. "Which I haven't of course but I can also change my age but not the rate of cellular decay, I could make myself 20 but still only be nearly 14 years old."

"Wow… I know you've tried being a girl by the way," Angel said.

Jake paled.

"Um… how did you? When… okay I did," Jake admitted.

"I can't believe you only turned into a girl so you could drool over your own body without clothes on!" Angel reprimanded.

"I was horny, so what?" Jake replied.

Angel laughed loudly and playfully punched Jake, this time actually hitting him. Jake laughed along with her but suddenly stopped and stood. Angel calmed down enough to feel what he felt and leapt to her feet, running to the side of the ship.

"You feel it too…" Jake said as a statement.

"Yeah. It feels… wrong," Angel replied.

The water next to the ship churned suddenly and Angel spotted a red submarine emerging from the waters like a fiery water spirit. Jake noticed it and swore loudly.

"It's Team Magma!" he exclaimed viciously.

On the Port side of the ship, which Jake and Angel were on, they could see Sootopolis city quite close by and realized that the ferry was off course. Angel and Jake shared a confused look.

"Why are we here? Were we diverted?" Angel asked no one in particular.

"There's a disturbance ahead near Mossdeep," came a clear feminine voice.

Angel and Jake turned to see a girl around Angel's height with pink hair reaching the middle of her back. The hair was streaked with dyed bits that were silver in color and the girl was wearing mostly purple clothes, including a long purple skirt, a purple tube top, and purple boots. The only thing that wasn't purple was the silver ring she wore and the red charka gem on her forehead.

"Who're you?" Jake asked.

"My name is Mizu Star and I, Angel…" the girl said addressing Angel directly. "I am your sister."

**Dun, dun, duuuunnnn!!! Well whaddya think so far? Team Magma has appeared and this strange girl is saying that she is Angel's sister. If I get at least 5 new reviews I'll update for ya'll since I've been getting a lot less than usual.**


	17. Chapter 17: Blood Ties

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon.**

_**One last message:**_

_**I know I'm not really supposed to do this but to all who read, I am writing to let people enjoy this fic but also to better my writing skills so reviews are greatly appreciated, especially if they help me write better in the future.**__** Also can you tell me if I should boost this fic to M rated so I can include some more things in it like more cursing and make some romantic scenes? Well I'm gonna finish typing this so enjoy.**_

**Chapter 1****7: Blood Ties**

"What?"

The girl in purple known only as Mizu Star turned to Angel, a raised eyebrow making Angel twitch. Angel used that expression so many times that it almost scared her to see someone else use it. The girl walked over to Angel until she was almost nose-to-nose with her.

"As I said, I am your sister Angel. How else would I know your name and know that you are a pokemorph in disguise?" Mizu asked.

Angel blanched and put a hand over Mizu's mouth.

"I don't really care about explanations here so could we take this somewhere quieter?" Angel asked.

Mizu only nodded and Angel felt a funny floating sensation overcome her. A blinding flash burned Angel's retinas and she fell over, onto a bed.

"Huh?" she said.

The three of them, Jake, Mizu, and Angel, were in Angel's cabin. Angel sat up on the edge of the bed and Mizu sat gently on her left, while Jake firmly sat on her right. Angel shrugged off her coat and let her wings out, groaning in relief. Mizu didn't pay them much attention but was studying Angel's face instead. Jake just sat there and observed them quietly.

0o0o0o0o0o0

"So... How are you my sister exactly?" Angel asked finally.

"As you probably know you were released from a Team Rocket installation near Lavaridge Town but your memory before that is hazy," Mizu said. "Allow me to fill in the gaps. You were born from Stuart and Michelle Star, the two head geneticists in Team Rocket. Stuart was slightly gifted with psychic abilities like Sabrina from Saffron in Kanto but his powers were untapped at best. You were born without any and so our 'parents' basically ignored you, but paid a little more attention to me when I was born as my powers far surpassed Stuart's. You knew what our parents were doing and sometimes interfered by releasing the pokemon they were using or just getting in the way. Stuart would beat you sometimes and Michelle would continue to ignore you, and unfortunately I was too scared to do anything after years of having to get DNA tests done on me along with the horrid threats. Then, on your 14th birthday, a call came from Giovanni that he wanted to try making a Reverse-Pokemorph, where it's a human turned hybrid instead of a pokemon. Not caring much for you and sometimes badly mistreating you, our parents put you in the test tube and wiped your memory. But your mind was highly advanced for someone with no psychic talent and wiping your memory was impossible so our parents just repressed it. You were in the tube for three weeks before you escaped and in that time our parents made a discovery. A mutant gene in our DNA was immune to Bug-type attacks and when encrypted into Psychic pokemon it made all Bug-type moves ineffective. Even Dark-types became immune… so our parents decided to put all these together into one final, super pokemorph. One that was Psychic, Dark, and immune to bugs but all previous experiments failed horribly. I still remember that poor Kirlia they used… so I was used instead after a final test on compatibility. I am now what you see after being similarly released by a scientist called Cassandra, who I teleported away so that she'd be safe."

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel had to take a full three minutes to take in all the information and a further two to decide what to do, which was to burst into tears and collapse onto a startled Mizu. Jake was turning things over in his head as well and realized that no matter what happened to them, nothing would compare to what Angel had already been through. This train of thought was brought to an abrupt halt when Angel started speaking again.

"M-Mizu?" Angel asked, hiccupping slightly.

"Yeah Angel?" Mizu replied.

"Happy Birthday," Angel said with a weak smile.

Mizu look startled.

"You remembered my birthday?" she asked.

Angel nodded but her face became down turned as she moved to sit up again.

"I remember everything now… so many pains… too many sorrows," Angel murmured. "It's almost too much to bear."

Finally Jake spoke up. Mizu turned to pay attention to him as well as Angel.

"So you are truly Angel's sister. Well to be polite I am Jake Paterson, Ditto-morph and Angel's boyfriend," he said.

"You believe my story?" Mizu asked, not hearing the last part.

"Well yeah… it's too preposterous to be a lie, to coin a phrase," Jake replied.

Mizu laughed and Angel looked between the two of them, feeling lost and confused. All of a sudden her life had been turned upside down by her sister making a miraculous appearance and Angel had a feeling they were forgetting something. Jake seemed to sense it too as he suddenly stood up, his grey hair flowing like silk through the air.

"Team Magma… what have they done?" he asked the room.

Angel started and bolted to her feet as well, as Mizu was just getting up. Mizu looked vaguely confused but seemed to know that something was amiss, especially when the cabin door burst open and Rebekah, Latias, Jimmy, May (with her shirt on), and Brendan tried to squeeze in.

"Who're these?" Mizu asked.

"This is May, Brendan, Rebekah, and Jimmy, and this girl is… Tania," Angel said, pointing them out.

"I know she's a Latias, I'm Psychic remember? I meant the others," Mizu said.

Jake snickered and squeezed through the impossible gap in the door and emerged outside of the cabin, where Angel's friends were stuck in the doorway.

"Brendan you're touching me!" May squealed angrily.

"I know, I know! I'm stuck here!" he shouted back.

"Rebekah your horn's in my spine!" Jimmy complained.

"What, you want me to scratch your back?" she asked venomously.

"Now that you mention it…" Jimmy began but was cut off.

Latias' eyes, instead of their normal gold, began glowing psychic-blue again and everyone burst from the doorway, back onto the deck, thanks to the Psychic attack. Rebekah got up and Jimmy laughed as he bounded to his feet. May started to get up but Brendan used her as leverage and boosted himself to his feet, knocking May down again. The poor girl groaned and got up again, eyeing Brendan angrily.

"Brandon you're a real bastard when you're upset!" May accused.

"And whose fault is that may I ask?" Brendan retorted.

May gave a muffled scream of frustration and stomped off, leaving Angel and the others (save Brendan) very confused. Mizu's eyes twinkled knowingly but she said nothing to any of the others and just watched as everyone started talking.

"Did you see that Magma ship? It's huge!"

"What was that weird feeling I got?"

"I have a bad feeling about this!"

"What should we do about it?"

"I'll tell you what we do!" Angel declared suddenly. "We know that Team Magma have already awoken Groudon but they've been quiet for a while. I am under the impression that it has something to do with Sootopolis City. There may be something there that Team Magma wants or something might be happening there, I just don't know. But we're going to find out now!"

No one really noticed May coming back but she listened in on what the team was talking about.

"Instead of showing off our pokemorph abilities let's Fly on our pokemon," Rebekah suggested.

"Good idea. Someone should wake Gray and Mariko. Also we need to find Kerr," Angel replied.

"Kerr's in the sea…" Jake said quietly.

"WHAT!!!" everyone yelled in horror.

"He is… look, there he is over there," Jake said, pointing.

Jimmy turned his head in time to see a large Vaporeon do a high jump out of the water before diving back in.

"Heh… Show-off," he muttered.

"Okay he can swim there. Mariko and Gray are our next priority," Angel said.

"We're here," said a pair of voices from behind.

Angel and the others saw Gray and Mariko, both a little red in the face, walking calmly towards them with Sirius trotting behind them, growling at something. Obviously the pokemon could feel the presence of something unnatural and was concerned.

"Gray felt something was the matter so we came to find you guys as fast as we could," Mariko explained.

"Good, now we can go. Everyone get a flying pokemon out!" Angel declared.

"GO!!!"

Inferno (Jake's Charizard), Cloud (Brendan's Altaria), Adamantite (Brendan's Skarmory), Solrock (Jimmy's Solrock), Misty (Mariko's Lapras), and Mimic (Jake's Ditto) appeared in several flashes of light. Misty was summoned in the water and Mariko grabbed Gray's hand and they both leapt over the side of the ship, landing on the pokemon's large back. Jake and Angel climbed onto Inferno, May got on Brendan's Altaria and refused to move, Brendan rode on his Skarmory, Jimmy held tightly onto his Solrock's protrusions as it floated above the ground, and Mimic turned into a big Pidgeot and Rebekah, along with Mizu, clambered on. The entire party of people, pokemon, and pokemorphs blasted into the afternoon air with the beating of wings, splash of flippers, and floating of rocks.

0o0o0o0o0o0

"We need to get to Sootopolis before that ship does!" Angel yelled, pointing at the large red cruiser, as it made its steady way to the volcano city. The ship was already several times closer to Sootopolis than Angel and the others and so the race began…

"Everyone use Agility!" Angel commanded.

The bird pokemon streamlined their forms and bulleted through the air, while the Misty the Lapras used Ice Beam to freeze a patch of water and, continuing Ice Beam, began to belly slide across the ice towards the island. Up ahead the huge hulk of the cruiser filled Jake's vision and, by telescoping his sight, he spotted Magma grunts lined up along the ship waving and pointing at them. Though by their movement he guessed they weren't friendly.

"Angel we got trouble!!!" Jake yelled.

"What!?" Angel cried back.

"Incoming fire right ahead!" Jake screamed.

The Grunts had opened fire on the group with various types of weapons (Jake swore he saw a fork go past). Angel saw the incoming danger, and with a tearing sound, her wings tore out of her back. Jake did the same and made wings form on his body, while returning Inferno. Gray and Mariko were safe on Misty as they hadn't been noticed at all and they shot past the ship, unharmed. Jimmy was having some difficulty however as his Solrock's Reflect had faded and the pokemon was corkscrewing and spinning through the air, Jimmy being dragged along.

"Someone help!" Jimmy yelled as his grip began to loosen.

Rebekah, who had jumped off Mimic, was running on top of the water, being careful to avoid the waves, saw Jimmy in peril.

"Jimmy let go! I'll catch you!" she called up.

Jimmy seemed to hear her and his hands came free, but shots were still flying and Jimmy couldn't avoid them in midair. A bullet flashed past him and grazed his shoulder, making him wince. Rebekah quickened her pace.

0o0o0o0o0o0

"I'm gonna jump!" Rebekah warned.

The ring Jimmy had made for Rebekah with the Moltres essence in it flashed and, in Rebekah's vision, time suddenly stopped. Rebekah blinked in confusion and slowed to a walk, still standing on the water. Upon closer inspection time was still going but at a hell of a slower pace. Jimmy was still falling so Rebekah did a running high jump, using a wave as a ramp, to reach him and grab him from the air. Bullets trailed slowly by, rings of displaced air washing off of them.

"These are good special effects," Rebekah muttered.

Rebekah fell back to the water's surface and kicked off the back of the wave she used to jump. Then, running as fast as she could in Hyper Time, she bolted towards the rocky bank of Sootopolis, where Gray and Mariko almost were. Rebekah grinned as she ran, feeling like there was nothing that could stop her… until an errant bullet that was unnoticed until now, slowly imbedded itself in Rebekah's thigh. Things began to accelerate and everything quickly went back to normal time. Rebekah didn't have the chance to scream before her lungs filled with water.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel flew alongside Jake, her wings barely beating as they dodged bullets, lasers, and kitchen utensils. Down below Angel saw Rebekah practically disappear and soon after jimmy disappeared from view as well.

"Jake, try to cause a distraction!" Angel yelled over the noise.

Jake nodded and folded his wings, diving to the water. Angel grinned and shot forwards, barrel rolling past the Grunts, towards where Rebekah disappeared. Up ahead Angel saw Rebekah and Jimmy reappear but there was something wrong. (Start Music- "We Can" from Sonic Heroes)

_This time, not alone.  
We've got some friends along.  
And as a team we can become even stronger._

Rebekah fell with a splash into the sea and Jimmy cried out as he surfaced, Rebekah in his arms.__

Together, we can, overcome all the odds.  
It's never as hard as it seems.

Behind Angel, Jake burst up from the sea in a swirling cyclone of water. The towering pillar of ocean vibrated and began moving towards the cruiser. Inside of it, a spinning shadow could be seen and a beautiful kind of music could be heard coming from it.

_  
Everyone can do something special.  
The secret is sharing our dreams._

The twister crashed into the side of the ship and entire sections of hull were ripped off. It was lucky that no Magma Grunts were pulled in or they would've been killed.__

Yeah!  
We can make it if we all stick together.  
We won't give up, not ever!  
And everything's gonna be all right.

Angel flew towards Jimmy, water causing a backsplash (where water rises up and follows the thing causing the disturbance… like a boat). The raven haired boy pulled a hand from the water and grabbed Angel's outstretched hand, pulling him and Rebekah from the water. Behind them the twister continued to plow into the ship.

_  
We all bring out the best things in each other. _(Angel flies towards Sootopolis)_  
Together we are stronger than anyone else could be on their own. _(The twister wrecks the cruiser)_  
Can't stop us cause together we are strong! _(Rebekah smiles)

The Magma Grunts finally got their cool back after being ravaged by the water twister and began firing at it. Bullets were deflected easily but the laser shots were able to penetrate the water and there was a cry of musical rage, like a melody of nails on glass. Many of the weaker Grunts fled and the twister began to break apart. A blue glow emitted from the center and with a crash the waves blew apart, revealing Jake… as a Lugia. The Grunts were shell-shocked and were unable to respond as Jake charged up an Aeroblast. The orange beam of destruction carved a swathe into the ship, injuring a lot of people.

The cruiser was now quite damaged in one section but the ship was massive and Jake had barely scratched the surface. So much was Jake engrossed in trying to blow the ship up, he didn't notice a Fire Blast heading his way until it was too late. Lugia-Jake roared in pain as his feathers were burnt and his skin fried. He turned towards the offending pokemon and froze…

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel winced as bullets twanged off the ice path she was flying over, causing slivers to cut as her exposed skin. Fortunately the ice pointed the path which Gray and Mariko took and maybe they would already be on Sootopolis, along with Kerr, warning civilians of what was coming.

"Angel!" Jimmy cried as he dangled from her hand. "Look behind us!"

Angel sneaked a glance back and almost fell from the air. Jake, in his Lugia form, was fighting against a gigantic red, spiky, yellow-eyed dinosaur pokemon that was standing on the back of the cruiser. The pokemon's head ridges were glowing and the beast opened its mouth. Angel felt her feathers ruffle themselves in fear.

"That's a Solar Beam!" Angel cried.

The beam in question was launched at Jake but he used the protective properties of Safeguard to block the attack. The pokemon opened its mouth again and roared loudly, causing Jake to cry in agony as his eardrums bled. Angel stopped flying and landed on the ice path hard, Jimmy and Rebekah cushioning her fall.

"Ouch…" Jimmy mumbled.

Jake screamed in graceful fury and opened his mouth, his body began glowing an iridescent blue, and an air-wrenching Hyper Beam lashed out at the colossal pokemon. The red thing was smacked in the stomach by the attack but recovered quickly and spun round, smashing Jake with an Iron tail attack.

"Jake that's Groudon! You can't beat it!" Angel screamed, too far for him to hear.

However Jake, being a Lugia and Psychic, heard her plea and rose into the air. Groudon lashed out with its claws but Jake suddenly rocketed up and did a half-backflip, coming back down. His back feathers folded down and his body flashed slightly before he crashed into the ocean and vanished from view.

"Where'd he go?" Jimmy asked.

"I… don't know," Angel replied softly.

The dark sea raged and strong winds began blowing through the air, forcing Angel to crouch down. The water surrounding the ship began to brighten and Angel was sure she heard a person yelling in anger. Before anyone knew what was happening a gigantic twister, fifty times bigger than the last, that glowed in multi-colours swept up the cruiser and with one powerful motion, threw it at the side of the Sootopolis volcano. Though the ship may have been big it was nothing compared to the volcano and crashed into it, mangling the metalwork. The Groudon however, did the sensible thing and jumped off the ship before it crashed, landing on the shore.

"Wow…" Angel breathed.

Jake, now exhausted and injured, weakly flapped to Angel's position and crashed next to her.

"Jake!" she cried.

Jake's feather suddenly moulted right off and blew away, scattering the air with Silver Wings, leaving Jake's human form lying prone on the ice. Jimmy managed to stand after getting leg cramp and picked up Rebekah, who was semi-conscious. Angel did the same for Jake and the pair ran forwards to the shore, which was now only a few hundred meters away. Hopefully nothing else would go wrong… but now Angel had her chance, to take out Team Magma.

0o0o0o0o0o0

"Okay we're all here…" Angel said finally.

Jake, Rebekah, Jimmy, May, Brendan, Gray, Mariko, Kerr and Mizu all nodded. Sirius (Gray's Houndoom) just sat wagging his forked tail. Angel sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose with two fingers, deep in thought. Jake suddenly stood up.

"Angel I think you should take a break. You're exhausted and I don't want to have to fight someone while fighting sleep at the same time," he said.

Angel gave him a commiserating look and sat down, her wings covering her and keeping her warm. There was shouting from the right and Jake turned to see what was wrong. Half a kilometre away was an army of Magma Grunts, Executives, Maxie, and unfortunately Groudon. Jake sweatdropped and turned back to the group. Everyone was on their feet and ready to fight, even the tired Angel was showing no sign of fatigue now.

"Okay everyone we are outnumbered and overpowered but we have the enemy outclassed!" Jake said charismatically. "We can win this fight if we really try so now… BLITZKRIEG!!!"

**Next chapter will be the climactic battle between Magma and Team**** Angel. Who'll win? Will Maxie be defeated? And what about that great hulking Groudon? Find out next time on Pokemon: Dark Angel!**


	18. Chapter 18: Island Antics

**Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon… only the original characters in this fic.**

**Chapter 1****8: Island Antics**

It was a perfect day in Sootopolis City. The sky was calm, the waters clear, and the city was in a state of relaxation. One civilian in particular was having a relaxing time, having a jog outside of the volcano by climbing through a small fissure in the side of the vent. Sweat beaded down her forehead as the teenager ran along the sandy beach. Her feet pounded clumsily along the sand and her head nodded in time to the music her MP3 player supplied her.

"What the f-?" the girl abruptly exclaimed.

Along the beach ahead of her was a complete battle zone with humans, pokemon, and people the girl could only describe as freaks. One had flaming red hair and was running around at insane speeds while kicking people flying. Another had cobalt blue hair and had the wings of an angel sticking from her back. She was throwing balls of blue light at people which exploded like water balloons. The girl's gaze moved around the beach and her gaze spotted a girl with brown hair just watching the battle like her. The girl who had been running jogged over to this brunette girl and tapped her shoulder.

"Hey do you know what's going on?" the girl asked.

The brunette turned and her golden eyes seemed to pierce the mind of the jogging girl. The girl who had just wanted to peacefully run around the island stumbled back from the other girl's curious stare. Unfortunately the brown-haired girl walked up to the runner girl and gazed deeply into the girl's face. The runner girl stared blankly at the other girl as she moved in a circle around her.

"What are you doing?" the runner asked.

The brunette smiled and began speaking.

"Watching the salvation of this city," she said sweetly.

"Huh?" the runner asked.

"What's your name? I'm Latias," the brunette said happily.

"L-Laura… did you say Latias?" the runner now known as Laura asked.

"Uh-huh. That's me!" Latias said cheerfully.

Laura blinked and shrugged.

"Your parents must have liked pokemon…" she muttered.

"My parents were pokemon," Latias replied.

This time, Laura was caught off-guard and didn't know quite how to respond to that statement.

"What?" she asked incredulously.

The girl known as Latias smiled and began to glow a brilliant white colour. Laura shielded her eyes with her forearm until the sudden flare died down. When she moved her arm down, there was a red-and-white pokemon floating in the girl's place.

"Tiaaaa!" the pokemon cried happily.

Laura was now completely freaked out and couldn't move… until a grey-haired boy crashed into her, knocking her down.

"Ouch!" Laura moaned as the boy got off her. "Why don't you watch where you're going?"

"Tell that to him," the boy muttered.

Laura looked to where he was pointing and saw a man in a red hooded uniform, with a stylized M that looked like a volcano on the hood, holding a rocket launcher that was smoking slightly. Laura took one look at it before she hid behind Latias, who was glowing green, showing that she had activated Safeguard. Jake pulled back a fist and Laura was sure he was going to take a running charge at the guy but she nearly fainted when his arm rocketed outwards, like a rubber band and punched the guy in the face, breaking his nose.

"Whoa, what in the hell are you people?" Laura exclaimed.

"Laaaaa!" Latias declared cheerfully, still holding up Safeguard.

"If you say so…" Laura replied, not really knowing what the pokemon had said.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel fired Water Pulses from her hands as if they were live grenades and quickly used Mist to obscure herself from the Hyper Beams fired from Team Magma's Mightyena. Jimmy's Solrock, though Psychic-type, was keeping some at bay with its powerful Flamethrower attack. Rebekah could be seen kicking one right in the jaw as it leapt for her. An arm brushed past Angel's shoulder and she saw a fist collide with a Grunt's nose as Jake pummelled his fist forward. The guy dropped his rocket launcher and fell to the ground, blood spurting from his nose like a small fountain. Angel grinned and began her newest form of attack, thought up of when the first bunch of Grunts had surrounded her. She beat her wings to gain a little more altitude and began spinning in midair, slowly becoming a blue and white tornado. As Angel spun she lit her fists and began hurling bolts outwards so that they streamed around her like a whirlwind of blue sparks. Unfortunately they were not that accurate and some just hurtled off, past the Grunts. Most however, found their marks and Grunts dropped, with huge bruises on the spots where the fist-like pulses struck them.

"Angel behind you!" came a shout.

Angel stopped spinning slowly and saw a Fire Blast from a Camerupt come her way. With a shriek, Angel flipped in the air over the attack and launched a powerful Ice Beam at the offending pokemon. The Camerupt froze solid but its Magma Armour made it defrost exceptionally fast. Luckily Angel's Linoone, Kaminari, bashed into the Camerupt with a Headbutt and distracted it long enough for Angel to get out of range, while dodging attacks from other Grunts and pokemon.

"Good job Kaminari!" Angel called.

Now to see about Groudon…

0o0o0o0o0o0

Brendan and May, not very useful themselves in combat, were hiding behind the wall their pokemon had formed and were ordering attacks as fast as their lungs could manage. May's pokemon were doing exceptionally well but Brendan's Skarmory was close to fainting from all the Fire-type attacks. Luckily it had energy enough for one more attack.

"Adamantite use Double Edge to blow a path through the Numel and Mightyena!" Brendan called.

The Steel Bird complied with the order and blasted through the ranks of the enemy, a trail of white following it. May too this opportunity to use the gap in the enemy formation to her advantage.

"Wartortle use Hydro Pump into the Camerupt behind the other pokemon!" she cried gleefully. "Blaziken follow up with an Overheat at the Mightyena, and Bulbasaur use Petal Dance!"

May's pokemon fell into formation, starting with Wartortle who spat a large blast of water from its mouth at the Camerupt, causing quadruple damage. Blaziken jumped up and landed next to Wartortle, spitting a large, melting-point gout of flames at the Dark Pokemon, and Bulbasaur used a powerful Petal Dance on all the surrounding pokemon, forcing them back and allowing more fighting room. Brendan grinned at the success of May's pokemon and came up with an idea.

"Alright guys get in there and fight however you have to but work together!" Brendan ordered. "Help each other and take these bastards down!"

His pokemon nodded and flew, or ran off to fight the swarm of pokemon surrounding the two trainers. May nodded thoughtfully at this and didn't notice a Camerupt behind her; in the process of trying to use a Take Down attack on her.

"May, behind you!" Brendan yelled.

Then the white-haired trainer did something incredibly dumb yet brave. He took a running jump and landing on the Camerupt's back, between the two craters. He then took out a case of Burn Heal and emptied the contents into the pokemon's body before it could stop him. The Camerupt stopped dead and bucked violently, throwing Brendan clear off it, before keeling over and crashing to the ground. Brendan was badly winded from his fall and was almost flattened by the fallen Camerupt but thankfully May's Blaziken jumped in and dragged him away before he was able to be squished.

"That was too close… thanks Blaziken!" Brendan declared.

"Blaze…" the pokemon muttered, before leaping at a straggler pokemon.

May was helping out as best she could by punching, clawing, and kicking at any Grunts that got too close to her and beating them into submission. Brendan got unsteadily to his feet and staggered over to her but was knocked aside by a snarling Mightyena, which was dispatched by the ever helpful Blaziken. May was holding a Grunt by his purple hair and she punched the guy once more in the face before letting him drop to the ground. Brendan was just able to struggle to reach May before he spent his energy and stood near her, panting for breath. His chest contracted tightly with every breath he took.

"Hey Brendan you don't look so good," May commented.

Brendan chuckled weakly before falling to his knees, clutching his chest in pain. May gasped and was down at his side in an instant.

"What's wrong Brendan? What happened?" she asked in concern.

"My ribs… I think I broke one," Brendan groaned, his face distorted in pain.

"Shit… what do I do?" May asked herself frantically.

"Ice would be nice," Brendan mumbled.

May snapped her fingers in thought and shouted for Wartortle. The blue turtle had been close to May; making sure any Fire-types were knocked unconscious before they could harm its trainer. The turtle hastened over to May and stood, waiting for instructions.

"I need some ice Wartortle. Brendan's broken a rib or two," May said hurriedly.

Wartortle nodded and opened its mouth. Artic blue energy danced in its throat before being exhaled gently over Brendan's chest area, coating it in a thin layer of ice. Brendan gasped in shock and trembled furiously before slipping into unconsciousness. May grimaced and looked up from her fallen friend, her eyes ablaze.

She grabbed the nearest Grunt and began beating the hell out of the poor girl she had grabbed. Grunts that had escaped from Angel's pokemon were shocked by May's violent actions and many weaker ones backed off in fear. May finished with the Magma girl and tossed her bloodied, comatose form to the side. She cracked her knuckles and eyed the remaining Grunts.

"Who else wants some?" she asked venomously.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Jimmy leapfrogged over one Magma Grunt, pushing him into the sand, before launching himself in a Jump Kick at another. Both fell but one got up, leaving Jimmy with one less target. Rebekah was moving at unknown speeds, kicking and tripping Grunts as she went but even Jimmy saw that she was tired. He felt tired too, in his entire body…

"Angel!!!" Jimmy yelled.

"What!?" came a reply.

"We can't keep this up! Finish Maxie!" Jimmy yelled once more.

He looked along the beach and saw Angel rocket through the air and down towards one person in particular, a man in a red and dark brown overcoat. Jimmy recognised the old geezer to be Maxie, leader of Team Magma. A Grunt leapt at Jimmy from behind and put him in a firm strangle hold, that despite his training, Jimmy couldn't get out of. After choking for a while Jimmy lost consciousness and the Grunt dropped him roughly. Rebekah saw this and rushed over, kicking the man in the side of the head so hard that one of his eyes nearly popped right out of its socket, as it was he wouldn't be seeing anything from that eye for a few months. The guy flew for a good ten feet before crashing into the sand and not getting back up. Rebekah could feel waves of heat coming from her body and moved further away from Jimmy in case she hurt him with the temperature emanating from her.

"Flame on!" Rebekah cried, as her body erupted into flames.

The girl with the Rapidash horn had now become a horned, flaming spectre, her hair billowing out like wildfire. Only if you looked closely enough would you see her real form underneath the burning shield. Grunts nearby Rebekah almost had their eyes melted and stumbled around, screaming in horrible agony as their skin blistered and eyelids melted shut. Others flinched back and one even tried having his Mightyena use a Shadow Ball on her. The attack streamed through the air but dissipated before it even touched the enraged, flaming teen.

"Take this!" Rebekah roared.

She crouched down, her arms crossed over her chest and suddenly unfurled violently, sending flames everywhere. The Grunts that had almost lost their precious vision were set alight and ran around screaming like headless Pidgeys, and rolling on the ground. After the tremendous heat wave was over Rebekah slumped down onto her knees, her energy depleted. She crawled her way over to Jimmy, who had remained unharmed from the fiery onslaught and curled up next to him, content in her work.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Jake faced off against the might Groudon, his skeletal black wings not even needing to beat in the air to keep him aloft. Angel had complained about the wings but Jake liked them as they made him look cool. Or so he thought…

"Okay Godzilla I'll make this simple. You go back to whatever rock you were curled under and leave us alone or… I'll make you regret it," Jake boasted.

The Continent Pokemon gave a hissing roar, which Jake translated to _'Inferior Lifeform… you stand no chance against me!' _

"I, asshole, am the Ultimate Lifeform!" Jake shouted.

He cupped his hands and collected sunlight between them, getting ready for a powerful Solar Beam but Groudon's Drought ability let the gigantic pokemon fire its own first. Jake dropped through the air but felt his hair singe as the beam just missed him. He breathed out a sigh of relief and fired his own Solar Beam, which looked small and pitiful compared to Groudon's… but none the less it made the pokemon stagger back in pain.

'_Impudent wretch!' _Groudon roared.

"Heh… your mama's so fat that Kyogre pushed her down and she couldn't get up!" Jake taunted.

Groudon roared in anger and swiped a massive claw at Jake, moving faster than thought possible by a ten story high pokemon. Jake again dodged and altered his form, making his hands turn into a Blastoise's water cannons.

"Eat this!" Jake roared, letting loose a blast of water.

The water made Groudon wince but Jake was shocked to see the pokemon charge through the attack and was so shocked that he didn't dodge the blow to him in time and crashed to the ground, his wings breaking. Jake winced and retracted the broken appendages, getting back up.

"Lucky shot punk but don't get cocky!" he yelled.

Groudon just took another swipe at Jake but the Transformist jumped high into the air over the claw… which was just what Groudon had planned. While Jake was in midair Groudon opened its mouth and fired a massive Flamethrower at the rubber man… and fire was one thing that Jake feared.

"Ahhhhh!" Jake hissed, as the attack made his skin bubble.

Groudon gave a fanged smirk and swiped a metallized claw at Jake, ripping one of his arms off and knocking him to the ground once more. Already Jake was healing and he pulled his arm from the sand, rejoining the severed limb with himself. Now Jake was pissed…

0o0o0o0o0o0

Gray used Mariko's shoulders to keep her balance as she lashed out at two Grunts with her feet. The two crumpled and Gray formed a Shadow Ball in her hand, throwing it at a nearby Mightyena. The ball knocked the Dark pokemon aside but the wolf like pokemon jumped back up and charged. Mariko swung around and punched it hard in the jaw with a set of steel knuckles, breaking the jaw bone. The Mightyena whimpered and fell, twitching. Gray felt a pang of guilt for the pokemon but that feeling was erased when she saw another Mightyena launch a Shadow Ball at Kerr, who was fighting near them with his Eevee Squad as Gray called it. Mariko turned to him and saw Mizu, Latias, and a girl she didn't recognise even further behind, watching the spectacle…

"Hey Mizu lend us a hand!" Mariko yelled.

"Kerr watch it!" Gray called, as a Numel used Earthquake near him.

The earth shook and the sand moved violently, causing Kerr to start sinking. Gray moaned and dashed over to him, skidding along the sand and kicking the Numel aside. She reached for Kerr's hand a grabbed it but he still kept sinking.

"Ahhh! Gray help!" he panicked. "I don't wanna die!!!"

"Mariko I need some rope!" Gray yelled over her shoulder.

Kerr continued to sink until only his hand and head were visible but Mariko managed to retrieve some rope from her backpack and tied it around Kerr's wrist. The boy clung onto it tightly and both Gray, along with Mariko, pulled as hard as they could. Kerr gasped and held his breath as his head sank beneath the now wet and bubbling sand, tears of terror streaming down his face. Gray cried out in despair as the rope she and Mariko were pulling on snapped and Kerr vanished from sight.

"Kerr! He's gone…" Gray said sadly.

"He's tough Gray he'll get out!" Mariko declared hopefully.

Nothing happened…

"It was worth a try," Mariko said sullenly.

Suddenly there was a large explosion and sand, water, and other things were sent flying in all directions. A large crater formed right where Kerr disappeared and a figure rose out of it, glowing a lustrous yellow. Gray hissed and shielded her eyes from the glare however Mariko seemed unaffected.

"Gray… I don't believe it, it's Kerr!" she cried in delight.

Gray opened her eyes and took in the sight of Kerr in his new form… his body had matured a little making him look fifteen and his hair was longer and spiky. His ears were in the shape of an Umbreon's but were yellow with a black ring near the pointed tips of them. His hair was still brown but his tail, instead of short and bushy, was now long thin and ended in what looked like a spiky ball, like how a child would draw the sun. His eyes gleamed a brilliant sapphire and Gray couldn't help but feel as though the sun had come out.

"That was unexpected…" Kerr said suddenly.

"What are you?" Gray asked in amazement.

Kerr seemed to think for a moment.

"Dazzleon!" he cried excitedly.

"Dazzleon?" Mariko asked.

However the three teens reunion was cut short by some grunts with machine guns opening fire on them intent on riddling their bodies with bullets. Kerr frowned and disappeared, appearing directly in front of Mariko and Gray. He let out a powerful, meditative cry and his glow became like a flare of yellow energy around him.

"That's kinda like Pokeball Z," Mariko whispered.

The armour-piercing bullets were disintegrated by Kerr's energy and he grinned, his feet an inch above the floor thanks to his energy burst. He cupped his hands as if trying to do a Solar Beam but instead there was a large ball of orange forming, glowing like the sun did. Gray looked away but Mariko watched, entranced. Kerr grinned and threw his hands outward, releasing the attack.

"Whoa…" was all Mariko said.

The attack, though powerful enough to level a building was slightly uncontrolled and missed over half the gathered Grunts but those that were hit went deathly pale and crumpled to the ground, as the pale beam washed over them.

"Uh-oh…" Kerr said as the other Grunts prepared to fire again.

"Use your shield thingy!" Mariko shouted.

"That was just me powering up! I've powered up to the max now!" Kerr called back. "Shit…"

The Grunts took that as a good sign and opened fire, the rattle of the guns masking the approach of something sinister. Sirius leapt from behind, flames spewing from his mouth, as he burned the murderous Grunts badly. Most collapsed but some were able to remain standing and ordered their pokemon to attack. Kerr was badly injured from the bullet fire, his right arm riddled with bullet wounds, and Gray dragged him back as Mariko called on the Eevee Squad and her own pokemon.

"This ought to be good," said Gray as she sat down to watch. "Wish I had a bird's eye view of it though…"

"Fllllyyyyyyyyy!"

"What in the hell was that?" Gray asked.

There was a high pitched humming sound from her right and the Houndoom-morph turned to see a cloud of sand approaching, screeching like nails on glass. The cloud stopped next to her and a green figure emerged from it. This creature had large red eyes like goggles and spiky twin green head fins, striped green legs, and diamond-shaped wings. A long tail swished in the air as the Flygon looked questioningly at Gray.

"A Flygon?" Kerr gasped quietly. "What's it doing here?"

Gray shook her head but something caught her attention… the Flygon's smell. It smelt a lot like…

"Spyke?" Gray asked hesitantly.

"Fly-!" the pokemon cried happily.

"Spyke you evolved! Twice!" Gray exclaimed joyfully.

The Desert Spirit nodded and crouched down, showing his back to Gray. She nodded and climbed on easily, settling just in front of his wings. The dragon cried his name and took off with a single beat of his wings before gliding around the area, firing Flamethrowers around along with scattered Hyper Beams at the random Magmas below.

"Watch your fire Spyke! Angel and her friends are down there!" Gray warned her enthusiastic pokemon.

Spyke nodded and flew around in large circles… watching the ground like a hawk.

"Let's just enjoy the show…" Gray muttered.

**Done then for now… sorry the update took so long but this is just half of the fight chapters so hold on for more. After the next chapter Team Aqua will come into play and they have a surprise of their own. No flames about contrived evolutions or miracles and Mary Sues cause I just needed to get those bits out of the way for the next chapter okay? Thanks!**


	19. Chapter 19: Surf's Up!

**Dark Angel**

_**Again sorry for the late update but I've just gone in 3**__**rd**__** year of High School and the workload is hard… But here it is the next chapter! Hope you enjoy this one! And I'll be moving Team Aqua to this chapter near the middle okay? Right then here we go…**_

**Chapter 1****9: Surf's Up!**

Maxie watched in satisfaction as his Grunts overwhelmed the pokemorphic freaks with their sheer numbers but was enraged that the Ditto-morph had decided to attack the great and powerful Groudon. He saw just in time, the boy get flamed and whacked to the ground, his arm severed. This pleased Maxie to no end as he still remembered when he first captured Jake in Mt Chimney and how the boy was so insolent and disrespectful to the mighty Groudon. How Maxie would nothing more than to see that the pokemorph is ripped apart by his idol... Maxie's that is.

"Good job… Kill them all!" Maxie shouted in jubilation. "Soon we will triumph!"

An Administrator next to Maxie, who was looking through binoculars, winced and tapped his shoulder. He had seen something rather dangerous on an approach vector and had to inform Maxie before it reached either of them.

"What is it Tabitha?" Maxie asked impatiently, not in the mood for games.

"We have incoming sir!" Tabitha yelled, ducking to the ground.

Maxie looked at the cowering man in disgust before turning back to the fight… just to see a blue-haired angel with murder in her eyes right in his face.

"Boo…" she said.

Maxie jumped back in fright and reflexively called out his overgrown Crobat. The purple bat's wings had veins pulsing in them; clearly showing the use of steroids and other enhancement drugs that made Angel want to retch in disgust. Maxie laughed madly again and Angel shook herself from the disturbing train of thoughts. She then sighed in boredom and blew the bat back with an Ice Beam, freezing it solidly. Maxie paled and angrily threw down all his pokeballs, summoning a Mightyena, a Magcargo, a Camerupt, and for some reason or other… an Onix. Angel laughed in delight at the odds and lit both her fists, putting them together to form a large ball of water. Instead of the usual projectile Angel used the attack in a beam form, lancing across all the pokemon before they could attack, rendering most unconscious. The others were returned by Maxie before they were defeated.

"Fuck…" he muttered.

Suddenly his mouth was sealed by a small amount of ice and he looked up at Angel in rage, his jaw going numb from the cold, solidified water. The Articuno-morph just wagged one of her fingers at him, making a tsk-tsk noise at the Team Magma Leader. Angel was having a lot of fun toying with him but soon she would have to wrap it up once and for all.

"Watch your language…" She warned.

Maxie began to look rather scared of the teen morph and this made Angel smirked arrogantly. But suddenly, without warning, Maxie whipped a SIG-Sauer P210 single-action pistol from under his jacket and fired a quick shot, sending a 19mm round at 640 metres per second, at Angel. The bullet flashed past her ear and Angel's mind relaxed… but then she screamed when the bullet instead entered her left wing. Angel fell from the air and hit the wet sand hard, while Maxie laughed his head off at her misfortune. Angel opened her eyes and glared at the man but before she could attack him with a Water Pulse, a pair of heavy iron gauntlets got shoved on her hands by the Magma Administrator known only as Tabitha… why the man had a girl's name was beyond her. A green light flickered on each gauntlet and Angel found herself unable to use her attacks as the gloves drained her energy. Tabitha then pulled her arms behind her back and a second light came on the gloves. They clanged together and Angel realized, with horror, that they had been magnetised and she was now powerless to stop Maxie.

"I'm screwed…" Angel sighed sadly.

"And so is your little boyfriend!" Maxie exclaimed happily, once the ice had melted. "Soon Groudon will finish him off and I can begin my plans to remove the sea from the earth and make a better world for everyone… with me as their leader!"

"Why didn't I sense a world domination plot?" Angel groaned in frustration.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Jake was still free, however he didn't quite have such an easy time as Angel. True he was able to fight Groudon but none of his pokemon forms were powerful enough to beat the giant fire lizard and he became extremely vulnerable when he used any of them.

"Dammit… I can't use my other forms and when I lose an extra like my wings I can't use them again," Jake mumbled to himself. "I just need to use different ones then!"

At his words a pair of feathery wings shot out of his back and Jake took off as fast as he could, to avoid Groudon's Iron Tail. Groudon then used a Fire Blast at Jake, which he countered with a Hydro Pump. Amazingly however Groudon's attack was so powerful that it evaporated Jake's attack on contact and the Transformist had to dive out of the way before the fire could hurt him. But Groudon's claws could do that too as the pokemon delivered a vicious Fire Punch on Jake, making contact.

"Aaaahhhhhhhhhh!" Jake cried, as the searing clawed appendage burnt him.

Jake hit the ground but he got up again and took to the sky on his soot covered wings, going higher and higher. Suddenly for some reason he remembered what Angel told him when he once turned into a Snorlax to get some decent sleep, because a deviant Spearow kept him up with it's squawking._ "When you're asleep try not to throw your weight around okay?" _Well that's what Jake was now planning to do. Once he reached about 1000 kilometres in height after ten minutes, almost in outer space, he began concentrating on his molecular density. As soon as his skin was denser than granite and harder than diamond Jake grinned wickedly, and his body was getting denser. Jake began to pant for breath as his wings struggled to keep him in the very thin air but he just got heavier. His weight soared and reached around thirty tonnes, which was when his wings gave in completely, unable to be used again from the strain they had been put through. Then Jake did the only logical thing… he fell. Rings of airs flew around Jake as he fell at nearly 400mph and kept falling.

Down far, far below Angel was watching the sky where Jake had vanished and noticed something coming down… something very fast.

"Hey do you see that?" she asked to no one in particular.

All Magma's in the surrounding area looked up just in time to see a thirty-tonne, 5' 10", Ditto-morph crash into Groudon's skull, going right through the pokemon and exploding violently into the sand, causing a large blast and making a very large crater. Angel was bowled over and over, nearly breaking her neck as she tumbled… Maxie was standing too close to Groudon and was torn apart by the force of the blast, not having a chance to scream before his ability to talk became moot. Tabitha cried out in shock as the shockwave threw him back and forced the sea to form a massive tsunami heading out away from Sootopolis… and right for Mossdeep Island.

"Jake!!!" Angel cried.

The beach was completely wasted. There were burnt rocks and chunks of hardened sand littering the once beautiful place. The newly formed crater was massive and next to it was the giant and clearly dead Groudon, speared through from head to tail. But there was a scrambling sound and a charred, smoking figure climbed out of the crater, shaking. Jake shook himself off and looked up, spotting the damage he'd caused to his friends and Team Magma.

"Oops…"

0o0o0o0o0o0

The tsunami headed for Mossdeep at about 70mph and if it hit it would drown out the entire island. Angel stood and watched in horror as it rolled away and turned to Jake, furious at the Transformist. Jake noticed her stare but was too preoccupied with what was now happening to pay attention to his livid girlfriend. Angel noticed his lack of fear and turned around again, scanning the ocean for any other enemies… but the water was calm. There was no sign of the tsunami at all…

"What in the hell happened?" Angel asked in confusion.

"Do I look like I know? Do I fuck!" Jake replied.

Around Angel and Jake their friends were finally waking up and getting to their feet, yawning. Gray and Mariko were the first to rise and noticed that they had slept on each other. They turned away for one another, embarrassed that Angel may have seen. Next Kerr got up and tiredly drifted over to Jake and Angel, his left arm hanging useless and bleeding profusely. At the same time May helped Brendan get to his feet and over to the others while Rebekah and Jimmy got up together and strolled casually towards their friends, not very tired but a little sore all over. Angel also spotted Mizu and Latias running towards them from the distance. Unfortunately when she saw them, all she knew was that they didn't help to fight Team Magma.

"Mizu why didn't you help!? We could've really used some psychic intervention!" she yelled angrily at her sister.

"Angel I know why the tsunami vanished…" Jake said, cutting off her rant.

Angel's eye twitched at the interruption but she let it slide. Then everyone turned to the ocean once more and saw a freakishly large, blue and fish-like creature approaching them from the sea, its yellow eyes striking fear into their hearts. Jake moaned in fatigue at the sight of the things as alongside the creature was a massive submarine, which was relatively half the size of the Magma naval fortress. Angel glared at the blue pair as they drifted towards them, not making a sound… until the blue fish-thing roared furiously, making Latias cry in fright, and fired a Hyper Beam at the group. Everyone stared in shock as the beam quickly traversed the distance to them and they shielded themselves in preparation for the hit, but Mizu placed herself in between them and the blast and used an angled Reflect to bounce back the attack with greater power, at the sub, causing a small explosion and a large hole in its hull. The sea monster roared again and this time there was a muffled roar in response, from deep under the earth. Everyone sweatdropped…

"What was that?" May asked.

"Dunno…" Jimmy replied.

"It didn't sound too good," Kerr added.

Then the ground around the A-Team shook violently and something erupted from behind them. Everyone flinched and slowly turned their heads to see what lay behind them. Sadly enough it was a cliché and rather scary thing there… which wasn't what any of them wanted to see right now.

"Oh fuck not again!" Jake yelled in misery.

Another Groudon, bigger than the first, was standing behind them glaring at the water creature with nothing less than the purest of loathing. The sea monster glared back and the tension made the air crackle around Angel and the group, bringing them to their senses. Jake led the way and ran down the beach, out of the way of the two titans, before he and the others fell over and turned around.

"If that's Groudon… again. Then that must be Kyogre and Team Aqua!" Rebekah cried, from her sandy seat.

"Didn't Team Magma steal a fossil resurrection machine from Rustboro? That must mean that the first Groudon was just a cheap fake!" Angel exclaimed, pounding her fist into her other hand.

Angel moaned and stood, raising her fists and ready to keep fighting, while her friends assumed targets and combat positions. Unfortunately even with the death of Maxie Magma, Team Magma was still rallying in front of Groudon to attack Team Aqua, the members of which were disembarking the submarine and standing ahead of Kyogre. Angel growled softly at their misfortune but their luck was slowly turning, as both Teams seemed to be ignoring them… for the moment.

"Archie you sea serpent!" Tabitha yelled. "Team Aqua will be forced to disband today as we have Groudon by our side so back down before we destroy you!"

"That's what you think land-lovers!" Archie shouted back, laughing. "For now we have Kyogre to protect us and destroy you instead!"

The two ancient pokemon gave each other a fierce look and assumed combat positions, their aims true. Angel suddenly gasped and cried in shock when she saw that they weren't actually aiming for each other. They were aiming for Team's Magma and Aqua instead!

"Look out!" Jake cried to the oblivious teams.

Tabitha slowly turned when his hair was ruffled by a foul rumble of a large creature behind him. His eyes picked up on the ever grinning fangs of Groudon and he had barely time to scream before the pokemon grabbed him in its jaws and began to chew, his screams of agony being drowned out by the crunching noise. Groudon swallowed and looked down at the other Magmas, many of whom had wet themselves. At the same time Kyogre had leapt for Archie's floating platform and gobbled the laughing man whole as it splashed back into the sea. Angel looked up as drops of water splashed onto her hair, freezing and making her hair glitter prettily with ice crystals.

"Hey… it's starting to rain?" Angel exclaimed in confusion.

"But it doesn't rain at Sootopolis. Not anymore," Mariko declared.

Gray and Rebekah whined at their misfortune of being Fire-types and huddled close to each other, much to the annoyance of Mariko and Jimmy. Angel was mystified at the sudden weather change but was brought back to reality when the severed hand of a Grunt slapped into her face, its fingers still twitching slightly. Angel let out a terrified scream and threw herself backwards, shuffling as far from the appendage as she could. Jake glanced at it before turning back to Groudon, who ripped a Grunt in half, sending a spray of blood showering over the A-Team. Everyone except Gray and Jake screamed and moved backwards, out of the range of the slaughtering. Gray merely began licking the blood off her hand while Jake didn't even flinch.

"Hmm… not as good as I hoped," Gray muttered as she spat out the blood she had licked off her fingers.

Mariko stared at her girlfriend with a mixture of horror and shock, squealing when the girl turned to face her. Angel was merely frightened of being hit by another limb and so stayed away from Jake, who was watching the gore fly with a mixed expression of bemusement and disgust on his face.

"Something should stop these two before they begin fighting!" May exclaimed hysterically.

"Goddamn it you just had to jinx us now didn't you!" Kerr wailed.

The two ancient pokemon seemed to have heard May's indirect suggestion and stopped their killing to glare at each other. Angel noted an increase in temperature as the rain abruptly stopped, still leaving some blood left on the group, before it could be washed off.

"These summer rains you can never predict them," Brendan said happily.

Suddenly there was a downpour and the rain began again with renewed force. Brendan swore and fumed silently as everyone laughed at his expense, May shaking with her laughs. Everyone laughed until their heads hurt but they jumped when there was a great roar from Groudon, who had just been hit by Kyogre's Hydro Pump. Groudon's head ridges glowed and absorbed sunlight as the rain stopped briefly to allow it to gain power. Then with another roar it let loose its patented Solar Beam attack, smashing into the aquatic ancient with powerful force. The two ancient's didn't seem remotely affected by either assault and clashed with tremendous fury as Kyogre used Double Edge and Groudon used Take Down.

"Mizu! Throw up a shield or something!" Angel cried as a missed Flamethrower licked at her feet.

"Yeah right away sis!" Mizu replied.

The hybrid closed her eyes and hummed gently as the charka on her forehead began to glow an iridescent colour, expanding and forming a glowing blue bubble around the A-Team, shielding them from the onslaught of pokemon brutality.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Kyogre leapt once more for Groudon, aiming for its jugular, while the Continent Pokemon tried to bat it aside with its mighty paws. Kyogre reeled back from the blow but fired another Hyper Beam at Groudon, knocking the red lizard onto its armoured back. Kyogre hit the beach, while Groudon splashed into the waters of the ocean. Angel, tears brimming in her eyes realized that both pokemon wouldn't survive unless something was done quickly.

"Jake come help me hydrate Kyogre! Its gonna shrivel if it doesn't get back in the sea!" she cried.

"Let's go then!" Rebekah shouted, picking a team to help Groudon, who was splashing rather pathetically in a deeper part of the sea, unable to swim at all.

"With the buoyancy of a brick Groudon needs back on the shore!" Jimmy called, racing after his friends.

Latias stood near the back of the group, watching as some left and others began releasing their pokemon to help. Mariko let out her entire pokemon team, including Nemo her Magikarp, while Gray whistled for Spyke and Sirius, who were sniffing at the ruined corpses with interest. All the pokemon went to their assigned tasks, Mariko's pokemon using Water Gun to keep Kyogre from drying up. Gray rode on Flygon, leaving Sirius to play with Latias, who was too terrified of all the destruction to respond to the distressed pokemon.

"Latias. Latias? Come Latias get up!" Mizu said impatiently.

Latias slowly looked at Mizu, her eyes blank. Mizu frowned and looked into her eyes, seeing something reflected in them. Something big… Mizu spun around and blew a Night Shade from her fist blindly into what was behind but the attack streamed of the long, green blur as it flashed past her.

"What in fuck's name was that thing?" she asked.

"The King…" Latias whispered.

Angel was having a hard time drawing moisture from the air when Groudon was stopping all the rain, meaning that she wasn't able to use her Water Pulse as effectively. Mariko's water-pokemon were a great help however and Kyogre was returning to its normal blue shade. The ancient pokemon looked around itself at the brave pokemon and pokemorphs trying to save it… especially Jake who was underneath Kyogre, his muscles straining to pick up the behemoth. Angel gave him a shout and flew under the pokemon to help, her strength easing the pressure on his shoulders. Kyogre felt itself move down the beach slowly, towards the ocean and cried out with joy. Unable to move on land it had people kind enough to help after what it and Groudon put them through.

Groudon too was having problems. Jimmy, Brendan, May, Mariko, Wartortle, Muddy, El Loco, Octillery, Ducky, Rocky, Foam, Azumarril, and Flounder, Rebekah's Relicanth, were all pushing against Groudon's side as the pokemon struggled to keep afloat. Groudon was slowly being pushed back to shore and the pokemon was very grateful but its head kept slipping under the water and hadn't gotten a proper chance to breath in a long time. Unfortunately Jimmy, Brendan and the pokemon just couldn't push Groudon fast enough as the pokemon was enormous. It was like pushing a large granite block up a steep slope… the more they pushed, the less distance they seemed to gain. Mariko's Magikarp, Nemo, swam over and began to help pushing Groudon along, its scales shining in the sunlight Groudon's drought ability provided. Suddenly there was a great rushing sound and Jake looked behind him to see a great green leviathan heading right for them and Groudon.

"Rayquaza!!!" he screamed.

Jimmy looked around and yelped, turning back and pushing harder. Mariko and May took the message and began swimming harder in an attempt to get Groudon to the beach faster, before the dragon could reach them. All the pokemon pushed harder too… Nemo even trying to use Tackle to do it faster. Unfortunately the pokemon nearly knocked itself out and cried out in frustration.

"Nemo! Don't force yourself if you don't want to!" Mariko called over.

But the fish continued to strain itself, reaching into the deep recesses of its mind to reach the needed power. Nemo gave one last "Karp!" of effort before sinking beneath the waves. Mariko didn't notice as Rayquaza had reached them and slammed headfirst into Groudon, shoving the Continental Titan quite a bit. Jimmy stopped swimming to look at the great dragon, noting that it didn't really seem to want to tear them apart.

"The son-of-a-bitch wants to help!" he exclaimed in surprise.

"Oh now you get it!" Jimmy yelled as he struggled against Groudon's hard scales.

Mariko finally noticed that Nemo was missing and looked around, not seeing her beloved fish anywhere.

"Nemo?" Mariko called.

The water behind her exploded upwards and the largest Gyarados most of them had ever seen rose from the waves, roaring. Mariko turned around and her expression lit up in delight. She swam over to the Atrocious Pokemon and gave it a watery hug.

"Nemo you're okay!" she squealed happily.

"That thing's Nemo!" Jimmy yelled in fright. "It's fucking huge!"

May turned around to see what the commotion was and wet herself in fright at the sight of the monstrous Gyarados not twenty metres away from her. The pokemon were wary of the sea serpent as well, not wanting to get too close in case they got eaten. Rayquaza continued shoving Groudon to the beach but the pokemon's armour was already getting pale from oxygen deprivation. Not even the sky dragon could move it fast enough. Then Mariko's Gyarados slammed his head into Groudon and bodily lifted the pokemon, throwing it clear onto the shore, nearly flattening Brendan and May, only escaping when Brendan dived into May, tackling her out of the way.

"Why don't you watch where you throw that thing?" Brendan yelled, pushing himself up from his position on May.

"Get off…"

Brendan looked down and saw that his hands were resting on May's breasts. He yelped and threw himself off her, expecting to be beaten around the head with her mallet at any second. When there was no mallet crushing his skull Brendan opened his eyes a crack and spotted that May had gone further up the beach to the tree line. She was sitting with her back against a palm tree, in tears.

"May?" Brendan called.

There was no response…

"Goddamn women!" Brendan cursed under his breath.

0o0o0o0o0o0

With Groudon back on the land and Kyogre back in the sea, May still sobbing against the tree with Brendan trying to console her, Angel and the rest of the team watched in awe as the storm clouds parted slightly, letting a beam of sunlight shine on Rayquaza. The mighty dragon let out a ferocious, echoing roar and the ancient pokemon both nodded. Kyogre swam slowly into the sea, a trail of foam in its wake, while Groudon dove into the earth, burrowing a massive, self-sealing tunnel. The Rayquaza looked over Angel's group almost expectantly but none of them moved. Rayquaza roared once more and twisted into the sky, flying to who knows where.

"Well I'll be the first to say this… what are we gonna do about this mess?" Jimmy asked.

The A-Team looked around them at the blood stained sand and the many body parts lying around in varying states of mutilation. Latias swallowed nervously and rose into the air, her feathers glowing slightly. May stopped crying and watched her pokemon begin glowing brighter and brighter… brighter than even Kerr could when he powered up. The air around the group hummed and Latias let the powers she was generating take control, expanding in a brilliant luminaire around her. The sand around Angel and her friends was blasted upwards, making it seem like it was snowing when it fell again. All traces of a battle were now gone from the scene and Latias gently floated back down to the other's level.

"Jake what in Lugia's name was that?" Gray asked.

"Luster Purge… one of the strongest attacks ever known," he replied.

Kerr blinked.

"Pretty…" he said randomly.

The group surrounding him facefaulted and fell to the sand in stupidity. Kerr sweatdropped and slumped his shoulders in defeat, sighing.

"Well… if we've cleared that up we've got to get to Mossdeep!" May declared suddenly, standing up from her spot at the tree.

"Hey yeah!" Angel cried, suddenly remembering.

"Well then what are we waiting for!" Jake exclaimed excitedly.

And off they went…

**Hope you guys liked this chapter… please review and gimme some ideas for the next chapters cause school work has dried up the proverbial river in my head.**


	20. Chapter 20: All We Wanna Do!

**Dark Angel**

**I promised an earlier update so here it is fans! And this is now the chapter when one some characters leave… and others remain. Heh, sorry for the spooky bit there ****(0.0;) but anyway let's get this on the air! Btw there's a lot of smiling in this chappie lol. Remember that all ideas submitted in reviews are taken into consideration so make your reviews count please. And this is a good chapter for those liking ebilness (evil) stuff, oh and no flames from Hoennshippers cause there's a bit of Brendan-bashing in this chappie!**

**Chapter 20****: All We Wanna Do!**

Ash Ketchum yawned as he sat up straighter in his chair. He was in a corner of the Mossdeep Pokemon Center, having a lively game of chess (if sitting, staring blankly at the board is what you call lively). As usual he had defeated another random trainer to come his way. But this trainer had questioned Ash's actual skills and challenged him to this chess game. Ash only knew the rules of chess but had never actually played because it just sounded utterly and incomprehensibly boring to him, and apparently to Pikachu as well which was why she was out with Brock and Max.

"Are you gonna make a move or not?" his opponent asked impatiently.

"Probably not," Ash replied dully.

His opponent scowled and sat back with his arms folded. Ash finally reached for the second largest piece he controlled, a Knight, and moved it in a forward L-shape to a square up ahead. Ash's opponent glanced at the board and did a double take, making Ash look up. His opponent's face was contorted in anger and disbelief, making Ash worried.

"Is something wrong?" Ash asked.

"You beat me…" the boy whispered.

"Huh? I beat you?" Ash echoed.

He looked down at the board and realized that he had finally cornered his enemy's King near where it had started with two Pawns and the Knight. Ash smiled weakly and sat back again, ready to have a nap, resting his weary mind. Unfortunately his opponent was still gibbering away like a deranged Mankey, shouting out that Ash could defy the laws of physics.

"Of course he can… he doesn't know any of them," called a voice from behind.

Ash heard this voice before he could completely fall asleep again from boredom and his eyes shot open in surprise. Excitement and doubt battled in his mind for him to look but in a second excitement piledrove, crushed, smashed, and spat on doubt. So Ash stood from his seat, nearly knocking it over in his excitement and spun around to see… that Brock and Max were waving cheerily at him. Ash could've cried from disappointment but his mind was too blank to form such a complex task, as Pikachu jumped onto his back. For he had suddenly seen a black and white gloved hand with an air horn sneaking next to Brock's ear. Ash, realizing who the hand belonged to, grinned evilly and Brock sweatdropped at the expression.

"Hey Ash what's that look f-," he started.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!

Brock's face drained of its colour and he crumpled to the floor in under a second while Max jumped three feet in the air from fright and landed on top of Brock, injuring both of them further and knocking them out cold. Ash wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes and looked back up to May's smiling face, glowing like the sun. Standing behind May was Angel, Jake, Jimmy, Rebekah and six other people Ash didn't recognise. But he wasn't interested in May's friends; instead he stepped over Brock's comatose form and stood not four inches from May. The happy-go-lucky girl from Petalburg that Ash had been waiting without sleep for, for three days, just smiled cutely and gazed up into his eyes.

"May… you're back," Ash whispered, embracing his friend.

"Pikapi!" his pokemon added.

"Oh Ash I missed you so much!" May replied, hugging Ash back. "Max too of course."

Ash laughed and released May, noticing her new clothes and looking her up and down.

"I like the new outfit May. Green's a good colour for you," he observed.

"You think so? Thanks Ash that's so sweet," May answered, smiling.

Ash laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. Angel and the other people were spreading to the free couches around the Pokemon Center to relax, but Ash couldn't relax now. May was finally back.

"May, you have to tell me everything that's happened!" Ash declared excitedly.

But all the while the two friends caught up with each other, a pair of ruby eyes glared behind them, watching their every move…

0o0o0o0o0o0

Ash, May and all the others finally got themselves a table big enough to spread themselves around. Apparently it was a Comfort Desk, used to hold pokedolls, and it was enormous. Gray, Mariko, Brendan, Kerr, Angel, Jake, Jimmy, Rebekah, Ash, May, Brock and Max managed to fit themselves around it quite comfortably and still have room for their drinks. Brendan glared secretly from behind his drink at Ash, thinking evil thoughts about the trainer, while he also stole glances at May. But neither Ash nor May noticed any of it as they were talking quickly to each other, wanting to catch up on their lives.

"So May, how's your adventure been coming along?" Ash asked. "There'd better be some good stories to tell."

"Well we helped Groudon and Kyogre settle their differences at Sootopolis not three hours ago and Team Aqua and Magma have been disbanded… there was a shortage on members," May answered.

Angel laughed dryly and began a hushed conversation with the pink haired girl Ash only knew as Mizu Star, when the entire group had introduced themselves. Apparently where Mizu came from Ash was spoken in high regard (not surprising since Ash screws up all Team Rocket's plans). Looking closely he could see a resemblance in the two girls… their watching eyes, never still, their long thin fingers, their thin pale faces… and the fact that they just acted the same. If he didn't know any better Ash would say they were sisters (even though they are). Once again Ash put that on hold and turned back to May, who he was talking to at the moment. Suddenly he remembered something May had told him and he grinned widely, not wanting to miss this chance.

"Hey May could you come with me for a moment? There's something I wanna talk to you about," Ash whispered.

"Okay…," May replied unsurely.

Ash got up and walked around the corner of the shed next to the Pokemon Center and motioned for May to follow. She walked over and Ash led her out of view from the others, where Brendan wasn't able to see them. May was beginning to get nervous but stopped when Ash turned around and pulled her into a strong bear-hug. May gasped quietly but after a second she relaxed instantly and snaked her arms around his back in return. All feelings of insecurity were immediately washed away and May sighed happily.

"So May… is it true you have a Latias?" Ash asked quietly. "And more importantly, how've you been doing all this time?"

May smiled at Ash's thought and pulled the red and white pokeball from her belt, noticing how well the colours suited the pokemon inside, and pressed the release button. A jagged beam of white light burst out as the ball opened and materialized into Latias, her yellow eyes completely devoid of negative feelings as she gave her species' cry of joy. Latias noticed May and turned around, hugging her happily, while giggling, obviously happy to be released. Ash stayed quiet as he quickly looked over the pokemon, noting all similarities between her and the Latias at Altomare. There was no doubt about it…

"Hey Latias… remember me?" Ash said quietly.

Latias stopped giggling and blinked suddenly, her eyes wide. Ash frowned and was about to step forward and see what was the matter when he was tackled to the ground by a laughing, crying, red and white blur. Ash groaned and opened his eyes to see Latias' golden ones reflecting his face to him. He slowly broke into a wide smile and grabbed the dragon around the neck hugging back his long-lost friend. Latias just continued smiling as she warped the light around her to turn herself into Bianca's form. Ash smiled at the brunette and got to his feet helping her up at the same time, while May watched with tears in her eyes. Just like Latias, they were tears of joy…

"Latias… it's so great to see you," Ash murmured.

"You should've seen how hard it was to get her away from the pokenav when I called you! She just wouldn't leave the thing alone," May laughed happily.

Ash laughed while Latias giggled nervously. There was so much catching up to be done and so little time to do it in, as the Pokemon League was opening in only ten weeks. Ash had already been training his pokemon, noting that his Snorunt had evolved into Glalie, and his Grovyle had evolved into a Sceptile as well. So much was Ash in thought that he wasn't hearing anything around him. Then he realized that May was saying something so he pulled himself from his thoughts to listen as best he could.

"… heard that there's a Firework Festival on tonight. Do you wanna come with me?" she asked nervously.

Ash beamed happily and took hold on May's hands in his own.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world!" he replied.

May broke into a happy smile and grabbed Latias, letting her get a hug as well. Latias laughed quietly and Ash jumped in surprise that Latias was making noise in her human form.

"Latias?" he asked.

"Yeah?" Latias asked back.

Ash blinked several times before comprehending the situation and once more smiled. Latias flashed a grin back and the three friends stood up. May dusted herself off and adjusted her waist pack, while Ash rummaged in his pocket for something. Latias just stood and watched while rocking back and forth on her feet apparently content to just stand there waiting for her friends.

"Hey May I've just remembered I have something for you," Ash exclaimed as he rummaged in his pocket.

"You didn't need to get me anything Ash," May answered, embarrassed.

Ash stopped and looked up at May in surprise.

"You don't remember what day it is?" he asked.

"Umm… no," May replied flatly.

Ash grinned and pulled an item from his pocket.

"Well then here. Happy Birthday," Ash said handing her the tiny item.

May took the thing in her hand and held it up to the light. It was a small red capsule with a press down button on the top which resembled a pokeball. May smiled and turned to Ash.

"What do I do with this?" she asked.

"Press the button and see…" he replied.

May pressed down gently on the button and the capsule suddenly jumped from her hand. It hit the ground and released a big puff of smoke and there was a sound rather like a pokeball releasing something. May waved the smoke away with her hand and gasped at the thing that was revealed. A brand-new, shiny blue, AcroBike! May felt her eyes water and she turned to Ash, jumping into him for a bone breaking hug. Ash gave a shout and fell back onto the grass with May on his chest. May laughed and got up, using Ash for leverage, and felt a large mass of muscle under his shirt. Ash winced at his fall and noticed May staring at him, her face ringed by the sun's light, making her eyes seem brighter.

"What's up May?" Ash asked.

"You seem different Ash. Stronger, kinder… and smarter," May said slowly.

Ash burst in gales of laughter.

"You really think I'd stay dim-witted and scrawny forever did you? That reminds me we need to peel Brock away from your friends, no doubt he's annoying them…" Ash said listlessly when the laughs had finally subsided.

May grabbed Ash's hand and pulled him to his feet with ease, surprising Ash, and dragged him back to their friend's table where, sure enough, Brock was drooling over Mizu from a distance. His face was strained as if he was trying to do something and May realized that Mizu was holding him back telekinetically. Mizu's eyes were ablaze in a bright, angry cobalt blue colour and Ash had to squint to get a better look from their distance. He looked at Brock and then back to Mizu, then to Brock again… and back to Mizu. May sniggered at Brock's misfortune as the young man was clearly struggling with all his might to get closer to the pink haired girl ten metres away. Ash had realized what was happening and, like May, burst into laughter again.

"Wow… she's pretty," Brock drooled.

Suddenly Mizu stood and marched slowly over to Brock, who was becoming more serious. Mizu was around the same height as him but Brock felt like she towered over him with the way she looked at him. Her eyes flashed blue and Brock's mind went blank, almost knocking him unconscious again, but he righted himself before he could fall. He stood up straighter and noticed Mizu in front of him, smiling slightly. Brock just waved slightly and walked over to the table, sitting down calmly, and not noticing all the sexy girls surrounding him. Ash was confounded…

"What did you do to Brock?" he asked Mizu when he caught up.

"I deleted that horrible lecherous side of him. He'll never again trouble another girl with it," Mizu replied coolly.

"Wow that's harsh. But it's a definite improvement," May added, watching her friend.

Brock said something to the others and they all laughed, no offended girls around him. Ash watched in fascination while May had to stop herself from laughing again. Mizu however, gracefully glided back to the table and sat down at her seat next to Angel, whose wings were a little noticeable through her trench-coat, but no one else was noticing that the girl had a large lump on her back. May suddenly turned and grabbed Ash's hand, pulling him to the table and setting themselves next to Brendan, who for some reason wasn't looking too happy.

"Hey Brendan what's the matter?" May asked.

"Oh nothing. Just thinking about stuff… something you won't be able to do for a while," Brendan replied coldly.

SMACK!!!

Brendan's head snapped forward, crunching his nose on the wooden desk. All movement and noise stopped suddenly and all that was heard was a small breeze blowing through the area. Everyone looked up to see Ash, his fist where Brendan's head used to be, and were shocked at his expression. His face was the picture of a nightmare, his eyes shadowed over and emotionless making him look rather menacing. Angel frowned and folded her arms, not impressed with the situation, while May looked quite frightened. Suddenly Ash began to speak to the moaning Brendan.

"No one insults May… ever," he said quietly. "Not when I'm around."

Brendan lifted his head from the desk, his face bloodied at the nose from the impact. He glared at Ash and grumbled some indistinct words, which seemed to provoke Ash even further. Ash grabbed Brendan by the back of his jacket and bodily lifted him from his chair with one arm, dragging him off and throwing him onto the ground.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Ash asked dangerously.

"I said you'd better watch yourself or you might find yourself in a dangerous situation," Brendan replied angrily from the dirt.

"Just try me!" Ash taunted.

Brendan's face contorted in rage as he got to his feet and he ran forward with surprising speed for someone of his build, his fist rose to strike at Ash. But the boy just stood there, smirking at his incoming opponent. May gasped as Brendan reached Ash and threw his fist forward to deal a solid punch, but Ash simply held out a hand and caught Brendan's fist in it, halting the enraged boy in his tracks. Ash then leant back while holding Brendan's fist and kicked Brendan in the stomach, making him fall to the ground. Brendan got up again rather fast and threw his head forward, catching Ash full in the face and breaking his nose. Amazingly Ash didn't show any effect apart from a grunt and grabbed Brendan's shoulders, gripping them tightly, and threw the boy over his shoulder. Brendan flew a good six feet before hitting the ground and slid across the grass for a few more feet before stopping, winded and dazed. Pikachu cheered from the tabletop for her trainer.

"And that's the lesson for today," Ash said quietly before sitting back down, next to a speechless May.

"What was that Ash? You completely thrashed him!" Brock exclaimed, impressed.

"Oh Ash your nose is bleeding…" May whispered. "Here let me clean it up."

May pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and gently began cleaning Ash's face, her hands working quickly and gently so that if Ash closed his eyes he'd barely notice they were there.

"There we go! All done," May exclaimed. "But please Ash don't do something like that again, you really scared me."

Ash blinked in shock and looked down at May's upturned face before his expression became sad too. He hadn't meant to upset May but hearing someone insult one of his friends, let alone the girl that he adored, was something that was bound to make him rather ticked off. And Brendan pulled it off quite spectacularly…

"I'm so sorry May," Ash groaned.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Meanwhile Brendan had gotten up and ran to a hidden side of the Pokemon Center. He glared at the group from his hiding place and especially at May and Ash. He solemnly swore to separate them and have his revenge for his humiliation at Ash's hands. Now there was no one in the world that he hated more than that spiky-haired moron and his little rat. Brendan was still fuming when he came across an idea. He grinned evilly and shrank into the shadows, before bolting off to the forest. The lush trees rustled in the afternoon breeze and the Bug Pokemon chirped their forest song as Brendan ran between the foliage, nearing his destination. Well… he wasn't sure where his destination was but it was bound to be around here somewhere. After another five minutes Brendan ran out of breath and stopped to catch his breath, holding his knees for support.

"Well James look who's out in the woods all by themselves," said a female voice from up ahead.

Brendan looked up, a small smirk touching his face.

"But Jessie isn't that one of the twerps?" replied a male (or somewhat male) voice.

There was a crack and a girlish squeal and suddenly a woman, with the most hideous hairstyle in the world, came out from behind a tree, with a blue haired man clutching his head behind her. The woman, presumed to be Jessie, shouldered her paper fan and smiled at Brendan. The man also presumed, to be James, just whimpered and stayed out of reach of Jessie's fan. At the pair's feet was a Meowth with a crafty grin on it's face, as if it was deciding on how to steal from Brendan.

"Now then what are you doing all the way out here twerp?" Jessie asked.

"Simple… I've come to join Team Rocket!" Brendan declared.

Jessie threw her head back and laughed shrilly, clearly mocking Brendan. However Brendan just stood and waited for the laughter to stop. Jessie finally realized that Brendan was not going to be aggravated and her smiling attitude was thrown violently out of the window.

"Look kid there's only us three in this Team so if you wanna make it you have to make one of us leave," she snarled.

Brendan glanced at his fingers before looking up again, a switchblade appearing in his vacant hand. He took a step forward and all three members of Team Rocket took three steps back. He grinned and his ruby gaze speared Team Rocket with fear, paralysing them.

"Alright… who wants to leave?" Brendan asked.

Meowth jumped onto Jessie's head and clutched at her hair for safety, while the woman herself begged for mercy. Brendan started forward and Jessie threw herself back, trying to protect herself, but only crushing poor Meowth against a three-hundred year old oak as he got caught between her and the tree. Jessie freaked out and stared helplessly as Brendan ran towards the frozen James and attempted to plunge the knife into his throat. James immediately reacted and before Brendan violently ripped the knife upwards, spraying the area with blood and letting James' life-force seep away, blood pooling from the horrible wound on his chest. James rocked back and forth, trying to keep his balance but this proved impossible and he keeled over, motionless on the grassy floor. Brendan finally turned his eyes to Jessie, who had almost wet herself in fright and started towards her, the knife raised. In a final act of desperation Jessie pulled a pokeball from her belt and summoned her ever faithful, patient Wobbuffet by mistake. Jessie could've cried in despair as the pokemon stood there, waiting for orders that never came. The patient pokemon did its usual salute and Brendan stopped to look at his new adversary, the blue blob not moving an inch. Until Jessie called,

"Wobbuffet protect me!"

Wobbuffet sprung into action moving in front of Jessie and activating Safeguard to shield her. Brendan looked at the Patient Pokemon in disgust and walked around it, taking care to tread on its black tail. Wobbuffet's face contorted in rage and it snapped, tackling Brendan violently to the side, before jumping on top of him in an unmistakable Body Slam. Brendan was stunned but Wobbuffet picked him up and tossed him into the side of a large tree, making Brendan crack a rib, but also allowing him to move. He got up quickly and readied the knife is his hand, preparing to strike.

"Let's see how thick your skull is!" Brendan yelled.

As Wobbuffet charged for him Brendan whipped his knife up and drove it right into its forehead, down to halfway across the handle. A spurt of dark red blood gushed out from around the blade and dripped down Wobbuffet's round head. The pokemon stopped and slumped down, as if exhausted but Brendan knew better as he shoved the body aside, his knife extricated from its head. It was finally dead… Jessie wept for her pokemon sadly, knowing their time together was nearly up, and couldn't help but utter some last words before she too left the living plane for hell.

"Wobbuffet… thank you," she whispered.

The blue corpse's arm twitched suddenly and there was a groan of "Woooooobbb" before Wobbuffet got up again, clearly not amused. Brendan frowned and turned to Jessie, pointing his knife in her face. The woman flinched and pressed herself tighter against the tree, squeezing Meowth out from behind and letting him hit the floor like a rag doll. The Scratch-Cat Pokemon didn't move but if one looked very closely they would see his chest slowly rising and falling, indicating he was still barely alive, if only for the moment.

"I promise you now I'm gonna be in Team Rocket and make Ash Ketchum rue the day he heard the name Brendan Birch. Now either you join me and obey me or I will kill you. If you fail me I will kill you… if you even look at me wrong I will kill you. You now exist only to do my bidding so get up and get to the Meowth Balloon. We have plans to make…" he said quietly.

Jessie let out a dry sob and returned Wobbuffet to its pokeball, not minding that she had to obey Brendan so long as she was still alive. Unlike poor James, whose body was still nearby but was being sniffed at by some Poochyena. There was also Meowth's unmoving form, rather flattened by Jessie, which was being watched by wild pokemon, ready to scavenge his body for food. Brendan took no further notice of them and walked towards the clearing Jessie had just pointed out, which apparently held the balloon. Now there was only one thing left,

"Payback"

0o0o0o0o0o0

The night sky was calm and cloudless, allowing the full view of fireworks to be seen clearly from the small hill May and Ash were sitting on, content to be in each other's presence and just watch the show. Brock had invited Angel, Jake and Mizu to go with him to the Space Center, not caring for fireworks much. This was because the area surrounding the show was filled with couples, all out to watch the festival and be romantic, while he had no one to be there with. Mizu had suddenly felt sorry for him and agreed to go, while Angel didn't like fireworks because their name sent shivers of fear down her spine as thoughts of burning things entered her mind.

"Apparently Clefairy came from space. Can you believe that?" Brock asked, breaking the silence.

"Yes," Mizu and Angel said.

"How so?" Jake asked, wanting to be enlightened.

"We all live in a pokemon world, what makes you think this isn't possible? After all Clefairys only appeared after a chunk of the moon crashed into Earth around thirty thousand years ago," Mizu replied quietly.

Brock and Jake fell silent, not knowing a good enough argument to put up against this girl. Mizu smirked and brushed her pink hair back with a hand while looking at the various space utilities. There was a G-Simulator and a SPC in one corner and a collection of Moon Stones in a glass case in another corner. Mizu reached out with her mind, trying to find something of interest until her psychic presence felt another presence… and it responded. Mizu was surprised to be sure, and even more so when the door behind them opened, letting in Liza and Tate of the Mossdeep Gym. Liza spotted Brock and waved them over, walking down the room to greet them.

"Hey Brock, how's it going? I heard Ash got all his badges," Tate called.

"Yeah and who's your new friends? They look funny…" Liza added, with a giggle.

Brock laughed quietly and introduced Jake, Angel and Mizu to the two Gym Leaders and all the while they were talking Mizu was listening telepathically to what Liza was saying to her. _'I was walking through the woods to clear my head when I found a blue-haired guy and a Meowth from Team Rocket. They were near dead but I had to save them… they're at the Gym resting.' _Mizu frowned and glanced at Angel, who was strapping herself into the G-Simulator, while a laughing Jake discreetly converted some of his cells into a paper bag, for when Angel got off. Mizu shrugged and followed Liza out of the Space Center and a short stroll later they were at the large double-doors to the Mossdeep Gym. Resting inside here was two members of the corrupt organisation that had crushed Angel's and her own humanity. But Mizu had a plan for that… she had heard on her travels of a small island near Sevii where pokemorphs were imported and they had built their own community. Apparently Pokemorph Island was like a sprawling metropolis with nothing but pokemorphs inhabiting the cities, and Mizu was planning to have this island as a fallback, should she and Angel not be able to stop Team Rocket. However Mizu had also heard that the pokemorphs there were… different.

"Are we gonna go in then?" Liza asked nervously, feeling the conflicting emotions radiate from Mizu.

"Yes we are," Mizu replied.

"Shouldn't Angel be here too?" Liza asked, obviously stalling.

There was an extremely large crash from the direction of the Space Center and a whoop of joy, which made Liza wince in apprehension. Mizu merely nodded and turned to Liza, who was watching her expectantly.

"Angel's fine. I need to see them now," Mizu replied.

Liza nodded and took a silver key from a chain on her neck and used it in the lock on the door. As she turned it Mizu heard seven different tumblers turn in the lock, indicating it was there for more than to keep thieves out. Liza led the way in, Mizu following close behind into the dark reception area. As they walked forward, the lighting came on automatically and a Lunatone appeared from one of the corridors, Liza walking over to greet it.

"Hey Lunatone, are they still sleeping?" she asked quietly.

The Lunatone turned from side to side as a no and it began floating towards the room where the two were being kept, Mizu and Liza following. There were crashes from up ahead and various cries from different beings. Mizu could already feel the terror coming from the two of Team Rocket and almost felt sorry for them. Maybe if she calmed them down enough then they could tell her what happened. Liza reached the door and grasped the handle, but yelped and withdrew her hand, whimpering in pain. Mizu grabbed her wrist and inspected the injured hand. There was a huge burn mark all over the palm, indicating the handle had been torched with fire to keep the Rockets from getting out.

"Solrock's locked us out… what do we do now?" Liza asked, despairingly.

Mizu thought for a moment and reached for the handle, the heat making her hand sweat slightly. Liza stared at her incredulously but her stare widened when Mizu grasped the handle, a sizzling sound coming from her hand, and turned it, pulling the door open. Liza braced herself in time to stop a man with raven-coloured hair from knocking her over. Right behind him was a Meowth covered in bandages, clawing at midair, while Solrock chuckled from behind it, its eyes glowed a psychic blue. Mizu realized that Solrock had been tormenting the Rockets with imagery that made them go insane with fear. With a thought she blocked off the Solrock's powers and released the Rocket's from the illusions they were seeing. The man was the first to come around and threw himself onto Mizu, sobbing bitterly.

"Thank Mew you came! I was going insane, I don't want to die!" he wailed girlishly.

The Meowth was more controlled and was just standing there, panting for breath and trying to keep cool.

"James we's gotta split! If dem twoips get hold of us we're goners!" it said suddenly.

Mizu was caught off-guard by the pokemon speaking, so shocked that she didn't stop them as they ran out of the Gym. However the man called James stopped long enough to turn back to Mizu.

"Watch out for that white-haired twerp! He's a maniac and wants to be in Team Rocket!! He'd kill us just to take our place. I'm leaving the Team, there's nothing left for me… goodbye," He said gratefully, before turning again and dashing out of the double doors.

Liza could only stand there in shock as Mizu sighed, not liking what she had just heard. This meant that Brendan had gone to drastic actions after the showing up Ash had given him. He was already slightly mental but now he had been driven completely off his nut and Angel, along with her friends, was in danger. Mizu ripped her hand free of the door handle, the outer layer of her skin being pulled off as it had burned onto the handle, and ran out of the open doors in the direction of the beach, where the couples sat together and watched fireworks. Hopefully there was someone there…

0o0o0o0o0o0

Ash sat on the sandy beach, watching the waves wash back and forth, ever shifting in the moon's magnetic pull. It was fortunate for Ash to have studied extremely hard and give himself the intelligence he knew he could have. Now he had memorized an entire dictionary and read several books on different theories. Einstein's theory of Relativity was his favourite so far, luckily Ash hadn't told May that otherwise he'd bore her to death with scientific techno-babble. Ash's next project was to increase his empty pokeballs capturing efficiency so that they could capture pokemon more easily. There was a shifting sound behind him and Ash leaned his head back… only to have May's breasts shoved in his face.

"Mmmmppphhh!!!" Ash protested, his voice muffled by May's well developed chest.

May had been about to lean on Ash's back and just rest there, talking to him, but she hadn't anticipated him leaning back. His talking was making her chest tickle and May started giggling a little. Ash stopped trying to talk and extricated himself from out of the Valley of God. He panted for breath, his face flushed while May blushed in embarrassment at what had just transpired. After Ash had regained complete control over his lungs he chuckled a little and patted the ground next to him, indicating for May to sit down. May did so, more gracefully than last time, and Ash slipped an arm around her shoulders. May sighed in content and held Ash's arm in her own arms, not wanting him to let go. Up above the fireworks began taking the shape of pokemon.

"Mudkip, Lotad, Pikachu, Haunter, Gyarados, Torchic, Staryu, Poliwag…" Ash counted off as they appeared.

"Ash we're having a moment here. Don't ruin it," May warned.

Ash went red and fell silent, watching the lightshow up above. The whizzing noises were distracting but suddenly there was a great whooshing sound and a great, big firework could be seen, rocketing into the sky. Ash followed it's progress and was shocked when it exploded into a huge pattern of lights. He had to blink twice before he saw the pattern… a large Articuno. Ash stood up, pulling May up with him despite her complaints. Something wasn't right about that firework going off like that.

"Ash! May!"

Ash and May turned to see Mizu running towards them, Angel and Jake trailing behind her. All three of them looked extremely concerned and Ash frowned in question. May looked on sadly as her three friends reached them, none of them speaking. Finally Mizu opened her mouth to speak but Angel beat her to the words.

"Brendan has left," she said.

"Why?!" May asked.

"He's… joined Team Rocket," Jake answered.

"WHAT!?!" Ash and May shouted in unison.

"It's true… we just saw him."

The five teens turned once more and saw Rebekah and Jimmy heading towards them, their faces set and grim. May paled and Ash's fists trembled in tension. Angel looked disappointed while Mizu and Jake were merely concerned. The situation looked bad for all the heroes and not one of them had anything good to say.

"Oh I just remembered! I've made some modifications to one of my spare pokeballs!" Ash exclaimed.

"There's no time for that…" Jake began.

"No listen! I removed the Pattern Buffer that distinguishes between pokemon and anything else so this ball can contain almost anything!" Ash interrupted.

"A ball that can catch anything… so it could contain one of us?" Angel asked.

"Exactly! In case one of you goes nuts too and need to be contained," Ash answered.

Ash pulled a red and white ball from his back pocket and the group leaned in for a closer looked. The only thing out of the ordinary for this ball was the stylized A on the upper half of the sphere.

"An A-Ball… how original," Jimmy muttered.

"Yeah… the A-Ball that is able to do anything!" Mizu added, with a laugh.

Ash grinned and tossed the ball at Angel, who was too busy laughing to notice the device coming until it smacked her in the face. The ball reared back and opened, Angel transforming into a mass of white light and warping into the A-Ball. The ball snapped shut and fell to the sand with a small thud, no hints of struggling present. The reason why was clear to everyone when they looked down at it. The A-Ball was lying on the ground, on top of a small pile of clothes… Angel's clothes.

"Holy fuck! It caught her!" Jake yelled.

"Her clothes! She's not wearing them!" Mizu panicked.

"Who'll release her then?" Ash asked the panicking morphs.

Mizu and Jake looked to Ash with determined faces and he sweatdropped. Jake picked up the A-Ball and roughly shoved it into Ash's hand before the rest of the teens back-pedalled to a safe distance. May waved from her spot behind a sand castle to Ash and he waved nervously back. It was clear that he was to be the one to release her.

"Cover your crotch when you let her out!" Jake called.

"Thanks!" Ash yelled back, sarcastically.

With baited breath Ash gently reached for the release button and, as if he was in battle, he pressed it and threw the ball into the pile of clothing, before turning and sprinting to the others, diving behind a growth of tall weeds. Behind him he could hear a shriek of rage and embarrassment, which chilled him to the very core… which had little to do with the fact that the air cooled by ten degrees in three seconds flat. There was indistinct mutterings and the sound of someone harshly pulling their clothes on before Angel began stalking her way over to where the A-Team and friends were hiding.

"Who-?" Angel began.

All hands immediately pointed to Ash, who tried to make himself as small as possible. Angel seemed to flow over to him and she crouched down to his level, so that she could speak to him directly, face-to-face. Ash gulped in suspense and awaited the deathblow from the furious pokemorph.

"Well?" Angel asked.

"I-I'm sorry?" Ash stuttered.

"Good boy… what else?" Angel asked dangerously.

Ash got the message and pointed to where Angel's clothes had previously been, the A-Ball lying in the sand. Angel walked over to it and picked it up, miniaturizing it and placing it in one of her pockets. The many teens of Angel's group removed themselves from their hiding places and gathered once more around Angel, waiting for some form of orders.

"Hey has someone seen Gray or Mariko?" Jake asked.

"They're gone…"

This new voice announced the arrival of the new and improved Brock and the same, annoying Max as they jogged over, not wanting to be left out. Brock quickly outlined how Gray thought it was best if the two groups parted company here and Max told them of how Mariko had a small motorboat and had sailed away with Gray and Kerr. Angel was sad that her three friends couldn't have stayed longer but it was just like what Mizu was saying in her head. _'If you stay together, you fall together. But separated you are stronger… as you divide and conquer.'_

**This was my longest chapter yet! Please review and tell me what you thought of that! Anyway I've gotten through some major plot devices and I'm cooking up more scenarios for our intrepid adventures to fall, stumble, or generally walk into. Like in the next chapter how ****Ash messes up an experiment and sends the whole group into one of his PC games! Stay tuned…**


	21. Chapter 21: Doom Desire!

**Dark Angel**

**Okay since some people might be confused as to what Kerr evolved into I will put up the Pokedex info I made up for Dazzleon. Oh and anyone wanting to use my poke can so long as they say that I created it. Also Pikachu will have a lot more mentions because she isn't getting enough spotlight (yes I think Pikachu is a girl). Here's the info on Dazzleon:**

**Name: Dazzleon ****  
****Origin: First discovered at an eclipse of the sun, 2009 ****  
**

**Description: Pale yellow with black rings around ears (like Umbreon's) and a spike-ball tail. Has Espeon like ears and resembles Umbreon in body appearance. There is an orange sun pattern on it's forehead which glows when it uses it's powers, but because Dazzleons are so powerful they only live for 15 years and they cannot use their powers for extended periods of time.****  
**

**Ability: Solar Flare (powers up Star-type moves which afflicted with a status) ****  
**

**Species: Corona Pokemon ****  
**

**Evolution: Eevee + Sun Stone (at a solar eclipse) Dazzleon ****  
**

**Type: Star/Electric ****  
**

**Height: 4ft ****  
**

**Length: about 2m ****  
**

**Weight: 500,000,000lbs (like the weight of the sun, but doesn't affect the ground or if it stands on you, as it can control its body weight so it usually weighs only 14lbs… but when it travels in space it has to retain its normal weight, mentioned at the beginning) ****  
**

**Stats;HP: 50 **

**Attack: 85 ****  
****Defense: 55 ****  
****Special Attack: 130 ****  
****Special Defense: 90 ****  
****Speed: 225****  
****Star Rating: 5 **

**Resistance: Bug, Normal, Fighting, Grass, Fire, Water, Ice, Steel, Poison, Rock. ****  
****Weakness: Ground, Dark and Ghost **

**Attacks: Star Stream, Hyper-Speed, Thunder and Strata-jolt.**

**Star Stream: Type Star, Power 80, Accuracy 95, Effect: A powerful beam of light that can lower the enemy's accuracy.**

**Hyper-Speed: Type Normal, Power 60, Accuracy ---, Effect: Guaranteed not to miss and always goes first.**

**Thunder: Type Electric, Power 120, Accuracy 85, Effect: A powerful bolt of electricity that has a 30 chance of paralysis. Never misses when Rain Dance is in effect.**

**Strata-jolt: Type Star, Power 150, Accuracy 100, Effect: More powerful when the user's HP is high. Power falls when HP lowers.**

**Well there you have it! I don't have the text that a pokedex says on Dazzleon because frankly I haven't thought of it yet. But needless to say, although Dazzleons are in a class of their own and seem invincible… their attacks do nothing to Dark, Ghost, and Steel types because who's heard of sunlight blowing up steel? But anyway let's get on with the chapter when I'm finished my rambling which is just about……………. now.

* * *

**

**Chapter 21: Doom Desire!**

Angel sighed as she lay back on the sand, letting the darkness of the night hide her worried expression. The ever loyal Jake sat next to the 'Queen of the Bitches' as Ash had called her when he thought no one was listening. Unfortunately for him both May and Brock heard and told Jake, meaning that Ash had to hide while Jake fumed around the beach area. But now Angel and Jake sat quietly in the familiar presence of darkness, letting the shadows obscure their doubts and troubles. A small wind blew through the beach, blowing sand over Angel's face and temporarily blinding her, while the sand was deflected off Jake's super-smooth skin. Jake laughed at Angel's vain attempts to see and waved a hand in her face.

"Jake this is not funny!" Angel cried, as she clawed at the air in front of her.

"Oh you don't think so? I think it is," Jake replied cheerily.

Jake's mistake was to speak again as Angel was able to sense where his voice came from and launched an Ice Beam in that direction. Unfortunately for Jake he came face-to-face with a point blank Ice attack. He was frozen solid instantly while Angel's vision finally cleared as she rubbed the tiny grains of sand off her eyes. In the distance there were shouts from Jimmy as Rebekah ran around him in super fast circles, kicking up a dust tornado. Even further along the beach was Mizu, using telekinesis to shoot small stones across the calm ocean, the pebbles skipping across the water. It was calm moments like this that allowed the team to get their thoughts together after a big upset. But even so there were a few more upsets in store for this teen-team.

"Hey it feels like it's gonna rain soon," Angel declared suddenly.

"RAIN!" Rebekah cried. "I hate rain!"

"You would. You're a Fire-Type remember?" Jimmy replied.

Rebekah wailed and dashed off in the direction of the Pokemon Center, where Ash, Brock, May, Max and Pikachu were asleep in the rent-a-rooms. Angel chuckled while she defrosted Jake with an Ice Heal, making Jake rather wet as the ice melted off him. Just like Angel predicted a few drops of water fell from the sky, making the two look up. The air above them was surprisingly clear, not a cloud in sight, giving them a spectacular view of the stars. Jake saw the Chu Constellation (end of Jirachi: Wish Maker movie. The Pikachu constellation) and Angel noticed the Big Flipper (same movie as previous, a Kyogre constellation). Around the two the rain was getting worse but Angel and Jake kept their gaze pointed to the heavens, admiring the beautiful sight… until a clap of thunder broke the spell and forced Angel, with Jake in tow, to leap back as a bolt of lightning struck the ground dangerously close to where they had just been standing. The shockwave from the thunder blew Angel and Jake off their feet and into the woods at the top of the beach, where the two both smacked into a large tree, and Angel falling unconscious from the blow. Jake jumped to his feet and snatched up Angel with an elongated arm, while the other's colour bled away until it was a translucent pink colour. Jake held this arm above his head and widened it until it resembled a pink medieval shield. Setting off at a quick run, Jake bolted towards the Pokemon Center, to safety.

"Going somewhere?"

Jake stopped and stood still while he switched his raised arm to normal, sensing a presence behind him. He gently laid Angel on the ground and turned on the spot, his eyes going to Night Vision to see better in the gloomy conditions. Behind him, smirking slightly was clearly another Rocket attempt at retrieving Angel. However unlike the Moltres-morph, this thing looked more like a humanoid pokemon than a person with wings. The… girl, from the vocal patterns, was covered from head to foot in a very smooth lightning yellow down. Her yellow hair fell to her shoulders in static spikes and her arms were comprised of tough, wrinkled skin. Her hands had only four fingers and each had a vicious looking talon on the end, completing the look of a bird of prey. Her eyes were electric blue and shone through the darkness, leaving the impression that she was more than just a pokemorph… like she was a luminescent being. She wore completely black clothes that seemed to be made of spandex, a tube top and long trousers, her feet hidden by the legs. To complete her appearance were two stiff wings, short and wide, that had spiked black feathers on the back. She was the reincarnation of a Zapdos, the Titan of Thunder.

"Who are you?" Jake asked coolly.

"I am Electra. Fear not you're not my target," the morph replied smoothly.

"I take it that Angel is your target? Well you're not going to just take her!" Jake shot back.

Electra let out a small laugh.

"Just because you killed my brother doesn't mean that I will fall so easily. You will have a harder time of me than any other!" she declared.

Jake grinned and the colour of his clothes began to bleed from him. His grin remained even as his skin and hair began to lose colour, until just like his arm had been, he was completely pink and vaguely see through, like a statue of pink jelly. Electra smiled stiffly and trails of electricity crackled over her body, making her down seem to gain a coat of light. Jake raised his arms in a fighting position and lifted one hand until he seemed to reach for Electra. He turned his open hand and made a beckoning motion. Electra scowled and her wings flared out, lifting her into the air while Jake kept his posture, ready to fight. Electra started out by throwing her arms wide, bolts of lightning flying from her body. Jake had no time to react and was thrown back, skidding across the wet earth until he stopped against a tree. He suddenly formulated a plan and threw an arm around the base of the oak. Yanking, he ripped the tree from the ground and hurled it at Electra, who smirked and vaporized it with a bolt of lightning. Only to see Jake hurl towards her and deal a devastating uppercut to her face, dislocating her lower jaw. Electra ignored the pain and smacked her hands together, a wave of sound energy throwing Jake to the ground again. Once he hit the ground Electra summoned on the storm's energy and used it to create a massive Thunder attack. Jake panicked and grabbed a large circle of tree bark from the ground and used it as a shield. The makeshift shield held for half a second before burning up but this gave Jake just enough time to leap to the side, away from the attack.

"Hold still dammit!" Electra cried; waves of static crackling off her.

"And let you have all the fun? Don't think so." Jake replied, his pink matter fizzing with excess electricity. "It's time to clip your wings!"

Jake drew the absorbed power from the first strike and formed it into a ball of pure electrical energy between his hands. The ball sizzled and crackled before growing even larger with the power Jake fed into it. Jake released all the pent up energy he had and used it to throw the Zap Cannon at Electra as hard as he could. Electra smirked and swooped to the side, easily dodging the electrical attack. But Jake knew that he would've missed and kept his gaze on something behind Electra. Sensing his gaze the morph in question turned and saw the Zap Cannon coming back towards her, even larger than before. With a cry Electra backslapped the Zap Cannon with an overhand shot and aimed it right at Jake. Jake's eyes widened in shock before the Zap Cannon struck him, its full intensity coursing through him and nearly paralysing him. It was only thanks to his Limber ability that Jake avoided this and he glared up at Electra with pink eyes, his body smoking slightly from the strike.

"That was a cheap trick!" Jake called up to his adversary. "But if that's how you wanna play it then I'll play!"

Electra grinned.

"What's the matter? Can't handle the sting of static?" she asked mockingly.

"You really need to chill…" Jake responded.

He stood up again and his pink, gelatinous body changed to a blue gelatinous body. He drew his hands close together and threw them wide, releasing a flurry of sharp hail and snow, in an impressive Blizzard attack. Electra gaped but began spinning in the air, rapidly accelerating, until the air around her formed a protective tornado. Still spinning she dove into the Blizzard and smacked into Jake, who got sucked into the vortex. Jake left the ground rather sharply and began spinning around in the tornado, the winds threatening to rip him apart. Suddenly he got a brainwave and transformed into a Starmie, immediately getting injured thanks to his weaker pokemon body. But before he was injured too badly he initiated a Rapid Spin attack in the opposite direction of the cyclone, negating the winds and releasing him from its grip. Electra stopped spinning, too dizzy to keep going. While she was in this condition Jake rammed into her with a spinning Tackle and launched a flurry of Ice Beams, before going back to his pink form. With her right wing frozen, and her stomach badly cut, Electra had no problem with falling to the ground, and she did it well, making a small crater as she landed. Fortunately the impact shattered the ice containing her wing and she shook off the dizziness while Jake landed neatly nearby.

"That's all folks." He said to no one.

Electra got up and gave Jake a sizzling glare before she took to the air again. Jake readied himself to launch another attack but Electra beat him to it, releasing another Thunderbolt. Jake flinched and his perception of time slowed to a crawl. But the bolt of lightning was still moving pretty fast. He noticed however that it wasn't aiming for him. Jake blinked and turned, before he yelled in horror, seeing Angel lying on the ground still unconscious, the bolt getting nearer to her. Jake ran forwards, his body adjusting to the time slowing, allowing him to move at greater speeds than was possible. He leapt into the bolt, taking the full brunt of the blast and fell to the ground just past Angel. Unfortunately this bolt was enough to keep Jake down for a while and Electra used this chance to make a tactical retreat.

"Catch ya later," she called as she flew off.

The rain beat down on Jake and Angel, cooling them off and finally rousing Angel from her slumber. She slowly sat up rubbing her eyes and took in the full view of what she was seeing. Jake was lying just next to her, one arm and both his legs were gone and he was smoking badly, as if he had been set on fire. Then Angel did the only logical thing she could think of… she screamed.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Ash woke with a start, a feminine scream echoing in his head, making him sit up violently. He looked around the room, his eyes adjusting to the darkness quickly, but saw that Brock, Max and May were all asleep safely. So what had he just heard that had woken him? Ash slowly climbed off the bottom bunk and quietly got his jacket and shoes on, leaving his hat and pokebelt behind. Ash had previously figured which boards on the wooden floor squeaked when stepped on and avoided them carefully, making it to the door with only one or two slight noises. Upon taking hold of the door handle Ash heard May call his name.

"Ash… no don't go… don't want you to leave," May mumbled quietly, moving around.

Ash realized that May was just dreaming. Dreams were harmless so Ash left her and exited the room, making his way through the dark Pokemon Center. Once at the entrance Ash saw that it was raining quite heavily and wished he had brought his hat. But beyond the rain and darkness Ash spotted a light blue beam of light stretching into the sky. Something was going on and he wanted to know what… So Ash left through an unlocked window, the automatic doors being locked. Once outside Ash noticed that the beam had stopped so he set off at a run towards where it had come from. His path led him into the woods, roots and low branches slowing his progress as he trudged forwards. Just as Ash was about to dismiss the scream and light as a trick of his mind he suddenly came to a small clearing where two people were on the ground, one crying into their hands and the other horribly mutilated. Ash recognized one of them as Angel, the Articuno-pokemorph… and the other was Jake. Ash slowly walked forwards, seeing Jake was still breathing, and sighing in relief. He had heard that Angel had a limb replacement and maybe the Pokemon Center could do the same to Jake.

"Why've you just been lying around?" Ash asked suddenly.

Angel jumped and Jake grunted, shocking both trainers. The mutilated body of Jake groaned and there was a popping noise as, with a squelching sound, his arm and legs slowly began to grow back. Angel cried for joy and Ash crouched down near her, watching in fascination. As soon as his legs had finally returned to normal Jake got up (he got his colour back before Angel woke up btw) and inspected himself. He was badly burned in some places and was clearly in pain but he couldn't heal those kinds of injuries so easily. The electricity and cutting winds that had gone through him when he was in the Starmie form had to heal naturally and Jake noticed that his hand had yet to regroup, though the rest of his arm was normal again. Jake flicked his wrist and, with a crunching sound, a new hand popped out of the end of his arm. Jake flexed the fingers and wrist, satisfied with the cracking noise the joints made.

"That was cool," Ash said.

"But it hurts…" Jake replied, noticing his wounds. "That bitch is stronger than she looks."

"Who?" Angel asked, confused.

"Long story short… Team Rocket has made a new clone to take care of you, a Zapdos-morph this time," Jake answered.

Ash frowned and pulled Angel to her feet. Jake sighed, checking he still had his scarf on, before heading out of the woods to the Pokemon Center. Ash and Angel shared a confused look before following him, the darkness swallowing them up. The rain finally stopped when the trio made it to the Center, completely soaked. Jake managed to heat all three of them up by turning into a flaming version of himself, burning quite well for being waterlogged. Ash was impressed with this as well, knowing to never underestimate the polymorph. Once he was dry he silently waved goodnight to the pair and wandered back to his room, once more avoiding the floorboards but this time he made his way to May's bed, where she lay on the bottom bunk, still whimpering from her nightmare. Ash crouched down and gently stroked May's hair, whispering comforting words. Slowly May's whimpering ceased and a small smile touched at her lips. Ash smiled slight as well and kissed May's forehead before climbing into his own bed, Pikachu still sleeping amazingly. Ash noted to himself to get Pikachu to stop being so lazy at a later date, but he couldn't be bothered and was claimed by sleep fairly quickly.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Just down the hall from Ash's room was Angel and Jake in their hired room but they were currently at the door, staring at the bed. The single bed…

"I get top bunk!" Angel cried as she leapt onto the bed.

"But it's one bed…" Jake argued.

Angel sat up and tossed a pillow to him, her eyes glowing dangerously.

"I said… top bunk!" she retorted.

Jake sighed and rolled out a sleeping bag from his backpack, spreading it n the floor. Jake made sure he was still wearing his scarf and crawled into his sleeping bag, to wait for the coming morning. Fortune was with him however as he slowly drifted to sleep. Jake shifted in his sleeping bag slightly and finally settled down, his internal clock telling him he needed sleep. Jake was able to fool his mind into thinking he didn't need sleep but he did need to rest once in a while to recharge his energy. Jake was like a rechargeable battery, he was active for a long time and only needed a short time to rest.

"Jake?" Angel asked quietly.

"Still awake…" Jake replied blearily.

"Who was that person you fought earlier? The one who hurt you," Angel asked gently.

Jake sighed deeply.

"She called herself Electra. She's a pokemorph of the likes I've never seen. It's like she's more pokemon than human or something," he answered at last.

Angel blinked and nodded to herself. Finally she and Jake fell asleep with no more interruptions to keep them awake, unless you count when Angel woke up with a Spinarak on her face… but that's for another time. In any case let's just say Angel and Jake had a good night's sleep for once with no screaming girls or bugs on faces.

**9 Hours Later…**

Amazingly Ash was the first out of the whole group to wake up… apart from Mizu who didn't sleep at all. She had been up on the roof of the Pokemon Center, meditating. But Ash was the first to wake and sat up, rousing Pikachu as he did so. Pikachu yawned and stretched herself, loosening her joints before she tiredly clambered onto Ash's back. Ash chuckled quietly and stood up, his feet making little to no sound on the floor. Ash crossed the room and was about to leave when a voice spoke.

"Ash?"

Ash turned to see May sitting up in her bed, rubbing her eyes. However that's not all he saw… May wasn't wearing her blouse and because of this Ash had a perfect view of May's chest, though she still had her bra on. So intense was this sight that Ash went pale and collapsed to the floor, his nose bleeding slightly. May saw this and panicked, meaning she got out of her bed and rushed over to him. Before May could reach him however, Ash bolted to his feet, grinning sheepishly.

"Ash what's the matter with you?" May asked.

"Who me? Nothing's wrong May… I just tripped," Ash lied.

May blinked and smiled happily.

"Just as long as you're not hurt. That's all that matters," she replied.

Ash smiled and turned around as May noticed her blouse lying next to her bed. Blushing furiously she pulled it on and zipped it up, before anyone else saw. When she was done Ash turned again, Pikachu making faces at May. May scowled at the yellow mouse and Ash gave Pikachu a warning look. Pikachu sighed and jumped from Ash's shoulder to his bed and poked around in Ash's backpack, where she found a pack of pokechow. Unfortunately it wasn't already open so Pikachu attempted to pull it open like she had seen Ash do a hundred times. The pack was stubborn however and wouldn't open… so Pikachu tried shocking it. Where Pikachu's electricity went, trouble followed, and in this case it was the pack of pokechow going on fire.

"Whoa! Corphish go, put out that fire!" Ash cried, grabbing his pokebelt.

From a pokeball emerged Ash's Corphish, who immediately used a Bubblebeam on the flaming bed, putting it out. On the bed Pikachu was swaying around, her fur blackened by ashes, and her pokechow incinerated.

"Pikachu are you alright?" Ash asked.

"Chaaaa!" Pikachu replied dizzily.

Ash groaned while May laughed herself silly at Pikachu, who was now dancing on the burnt bed. Ash grabbed his pokemon and returned Corphish to his pokeball. Pikachu snapped out of her daze as soon as Ash picked her up and she instantly became sad. Ash smiled and pulled another packet of pokechow out of his fleece pocket. Pikachu cried for joy when she saw that this one was already open and dug her head into it, eating every bit of food she could reach. Ash just laughed and went back to the door, where May was standing.

"No more fire's Pikachu! We don't want to repeat the Walrein incident," Ash warned.

Pikachu shuddered and May looked at Ash in confusion.

"What Walrein incident?" she asked.

"Yeah, Pikachu was playing on a beach and tripped over a rock. She let out some electricity and set fire to a Walrein's hair by mistake. The thing wouldn't stop chasing us until I had personally got it like twenty Pecha berries!" Ash moaned.

May laughed.

"Anyway it's time for breakfast. Let's go," Ash muttered, leaving the room.

"Yes let's…" May echoed, exiting the room too.

Once both teens were out the room Max looked up and got out of his bed.

"You owe me $10 Brock!" he crowed.

Brock tossed a $10 note at Max, who caught it and stuffed it into his pocket. Brock yawned in annoyance and climbed out of bed, dragging his shirt on and flopping back down. Max grinned deviously and thought of a way to make Brock move with more enthusiasm.

"Hey Brock I bet Nurse Joy's awake…" Max said.

"You'd win that bet her shift starts at 5am every morning," Brock replied.

Max blinked and huffed, remembering what Mizu had done to Brock's head. If only she'd left him alone so that Max could've had more fun with him.

"Well I bet that you can't talk cohesively to Nurse Joy!" Max declared, hoping that Brock would regain his lecherous side.

"Ok you've got $10 on that bet. Let's go," Brock replied, getting up.

Max blinked, realizing what he'd just done.

"Shit…" he mumbled.

"LANGUAGE!" came May's distinct scream from the lobby.

"Damn she's good," Max said to himself.

"WHAT DID I JUST SAY!" May screamed again.

Max chose to stay silent this time and, with a sigh, he walked out of the bedroom, letting the door shut with a snap.

* * *

**Ok than it's the end of the chapter.**

**Angel: Bet you all thought I was dead! Well tough luck.**

**Lol. Well anyway I'll update again soon, don't worry.**

**Angel: Don't forget to review or I'll break your legs… nah, just Max's. haha**


	22. Chapter 22: Who's that, Digimon?

**Dark Angel**

**Well I've finished yet another new chapter. Bet you're all wondering about that Electra girl I've put in and why Jake was pink? Well in this chapter things cool down (literally) and we discover what's behind those freaky appearances. My description of Chakra came from And if anyone wants to use Dazzleon (pronounced Daz-lee-on, for those who suck at pronouncing like me) just review and say what your story is called that Dazzleon will feature in. (I like doing that so I can read more stories and see how cool they are) But enough about this I'll move over and let Angel tell you more… Uh-oh.**

**(Author is blasted out of seat by Weather Ball) **

**Angel: Hey guys smee again. GOAN FUCK YOURSELVES!**

**What was that for?**

**Angel: Sorry… I heard it on the Pokegear on FM1.**

**Hehe… Robin Galloway is funny (What Angel said actually happened on Forth 1).**

**Angel: So anyway in this chapter we see Jake's whole new look and we have an unexpected show of power. Let's read… I can read… I've mastered reading. I'M THE READING MASTER!.. Um… Nibbles? offers ice cream**

**Sigh… Anyway because Ash is the only person with no unique gifts or strengths and since he has to rely on his pokemon I'm gonna teach him a new trick. And before people complain that he's too clever I only made him smarter because he wanted impress May by showing that he could learn things. So he read his way through an entire library and memorized all of it. Hopefully May likes smart people.**

**May: Look a peanut!**

**Shame she isn't so bright… I also don't own Naruto or anything related to it so no flames because of related thingies!

* * *

**

**Chapter 22: Who's that…Digimon?**

_3 Days Later…_

Angel, Jake, Ash, May, Jimmy, Rebekah, and of course Mizu and Pikachu were on the road again. Brock was no longer with them, having not liked his brain being messed with. Max was also gone, after Angel had described just how dangerous her journey was to little children, and he had left to go home, back to Petalburg. Mizu sighed, rather upset that she had driven off one of her friends so easily, not realizing that improving him would make him unhappy. Angel glanced at her sad sister and put an arm around her shoulder as they walked, the sound of steady footsteps breaking the monotonous silence.

"So….. Where're we heading now?" Ash asked, clearly bored.

"I've still not forgiven you for throwing that ball at me," Angel replied briskly. "You may want to stay quiet."

May seethed at this comment but realized that arguing would be futile. It was Ash's fault that he had made Angel so angry, since he did leave her without clothes in the middle of the night, on a public beach, where anyone could've seen her. May glanced at Ash, who was looking rather down as well as everyone else in the group. May sighed, content in knowing that she herself wasn't so miserable, until she thought about _him. _Brendan Birch…the traitor. _'That evil back-stabbing bastard, I'd like to tear him a new hole if I ever saw him!' _May thought viciously. The group continued their weary trek through the Route past Lilycove City, heading for Fortree. Angel had decided on a new course but no one knew where they were heading, not even Jake. Mizu hadn't read Angel's mind either to find out, respecting her sister's privacy.

"Come on I hate this silence! Someone say something!" Jimmy suddenly exclaimed.

"Shut up," Jake replied.

May snickered and Ash put his fist in his mouth to prevent himself from laughing. Jimmy frowned and clenched his hands into fists, but chose not to rise to the bait. The group had already had too many losses and Jimmy did not want to make the seventh. After Gray, Mariko, Kerr, Max, Brock and… Brendan had left the group's morale had withered down to horrible levels. Fortunately Rebekah came up with an idea that would soon make the group bright once more, back to full happiness. Rebekah opened her mouth but somehow Angel beat her to it.

"Let's take a break and let our pokemon out. I'm tired of walking," the Artic-morph declared.

"Wynaut? Um…I meant why not?" Ash mumbled, fingering his pokeballs.

He threw out all five and released Swellow, Glalie, Grovyle, Torkoal, and Corphish. Jake followed suit and released his Linoone, Pikachu, Charmeleon, Meganium, Ditto, and Milotic, all of which were very happy to be let out. Jimmy then released Typhlosion, Beedrill, Kirlia, Azumarril, Solrock and Nidoking. May released Bulbasaur, Blaziken, Delcatty, Wartortle, Eevee, Munchlax, and Latias. Angel let out both of her Articunos, Blizzard and Breeze, Manyula, Shedinja, Linoone, Chimecho, Manetric, and Surskit. Finally Rebekah threw out her Rapidash, Rhydon, Quilava, Arcanine, Charmeleon, and Relicanth. There was a total of thirty-nine pokemon on the Route, making it rather cramped but once everyone had spread out there was plenty of room. Ash's and Jimmy's Pikachus were talking happily in their language, saying nothing but three syllables over and over. Angel and Jake's Linoones, Kaminari and Faith were sparring, their claws slashing through air as they dodged each others attacks. Jimmy's Typhlosion was playing with his son, Rebekah's Quilava, and the two Articunos had taken up to roost in a large tree. Overall there was a large amount of noise and laughs coming from Route 121, indicating Angel and her friends were finally able to unwind. Ash was sitting against a tree stump with Swellow on his shoulder, tinkering with what seemed to be a handheld games console. May was watching him with interest, her cheeks red from a light blush that was slowly creeping across her face as she watched Ash. Eevee was sitting on May's lap, fast asleep, content to just rest with her mother (Eevee hatched in May's presence and thinks of May as her mother).

"Oh, Mizu, why haven't you let out your pokemon?" Angel asked.

Mizu blinked and realized that Angel was right. Groaning in embarrassment Mizu pulled five pokeballs from her belt and released the pokemon inside. From out of them came an Alakazam, a Mightyena, a Hypno, a Xatu, and finally a massive hulking Tyranitar. All five of the pokemon looked and Mizu once before going off to do their own thing. The Tyranitar sat against a thick oak and began picking leaves off, stripping them right from the branches, and eating them. Mizu smiled and sat next to Angel, who was now on a bench at the side of the road. There were shouts of laughter and yells of people being chased, along with the calls of various pokemon, making it seem like the route was singing, the melody being played by people and pokemon alike.

0o0o0o0o0o0

_3 Hours Later_

Angel sat snoring softly on the bench, having fallen asleep long ago. Jimmy and Rebekah were chasing each other, though both were going slower than usual and were panting heavily, sweat beading down their foreheads. May and Ash were sleeping too but as Ash was slightly behind her when he'd fallen asleep, meanwhile May had fallen back and was sleeping on top of him. Pikachu didn't care either and was sleeping on May, making a kind of pyramid with the three bodies.

"Hey Jake! What do you think we're gonna do when we get to Mt Chimney?" Mizu whispered to the only wide awake person.

"It's obvious. We go in, trash the place, and make the Rocket Boss surrender to us," Jake replied shortly.

Mizu frowned and went into a meditative trance, unable to be disturbed by anything while she thought. Jake stared for a moment at Mizu, as if wondering whether she was completely trustworthy, but he immediately felt ashamed for thinking such a thing about her. She was Angel's _sister_ and she had also been horribly altered by the likes of Team Rocket, by her own parents no less. Jake thanked whatever gods there were that he was the only naturally born pokemorph in his generation. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his chest as though someone had stuck a blade in him and kept it there.

"No… not now…" Jake groaned.

Jimmy heard the Ditto-morph and stopped running, breathing heavily. Surprise filled his eyes as the colour on Jake's face, hair and clothes seeped away, as if scrubbed off with a damp cloth. After a few seconds Jake looked like a statue of himself made from pink jelly. The only colour other than pink was his eyes, which were black. Jimmy heard Rebekah behind him stop as well and could feel her stare at Jake too. Neither person had ever seen Jake like that.

"It's alright…," Jake suddenly said. "This is my true form."

"What in the hell is going on?" Rebekah uttered in confusion.

Jimmy nodded, recognizing what Jake looked like. Jake closely resembled a large, humanoid Ditto and his voice was higher than normal, indicating that even his voice was altered when he was like he normally was. Rebekah walked slowly over to Jake and cautiously poked him with a finger. Like jelly, Jake wobbled a bit and Rebekah's finger sank into his body, making her jump back with fright.

"Why does that happen to you?" she asked quietly.

"I have to go back to this form once every month for one hour to regain the strength to keep up the look you see me with normally. Such a drastic change in colour and voice patterns, even solidity, is quite hard for me to keep going for really long periods of time," Jake replied.

"Weird…" Jimmy whistled. "Well that's me convinced, I'm not gonna tell anyone else."

"Me neither!" Rebekah added happily. "I'll be quiet just so long as you're alright and not injured."

Jake looked at his two friends and smiled warmly, his eyes shining. Jimmy and Rebekah both shared a look, grinned once and then they both collapsed to the ground, fast asleep. Jake almost ran over to them but realized what had happened and chuckled quietly. They should've collapsed long ago, after running around for three hours straight, but they were incredibly resilient. Jake smiled and stood up, his joints fluidly adjusting, to stop him getting a cramp. He walked over to a nearby tree and studied it carefully. It was very tall, around 35 metres, had a wide trunk and the branches were near the top, meaning that it was relatively smooth. It was also completely straight, no angles on it at all.

"Good."

Jake put his hands together, clasping his fingers apart from his two index fingers, which he held up, pressed against each other and he closed his eyes. A small breeze blew through the area, make Jake's gel-like body quiver slight but Jake wasn't bothered. He concentrated on the soles of his feet and imagined them sticking to the ground. Slowly a blue aura flowed across his feet and vanished, making Jake open his eyes. He took a deep breath and ran at the tree… and up the trunk. Jake managed to run eight strides up the tree before he began to lose his footing and he flipped off, landing on his feet with a small squelch.

'_Damn. My charka is almost gone,'_ Jake thought to himself.

He continued this practice for a whole hour, regaining his usual appearance in the process. After a while he managed to get fourteen strides up the tree and once managed to stop, standing on the side of the tree for a few seconds.

"Can I do that?"

Jake lost his focus and fell off the tree, hitting the ground hard. He glared up to see Ash watching him, his eyes glittering with interest. Jake sighed and sat up, rubbing his head as a reflex, even though he hadn't hurt it when he had fallen. Ash sat next to him and Jake took a deep breath before starting to explain just how he could defy the law of gravity.

"First Ash you need to know about Chakra-," Jake began.

"Chakras are centers of energy, located on the midline of the body. There are seven of them, and they govern our psychological properties. The chakras located on the lower part of our body are our instinctual side, the highest ones our mental side. The chakras can have various levels of activity. When they're "open," they're considered operative in a normal fashion. Ideally, all chakras would contribute to our being. Our instincts would work together with our feelings and thinking. However, this is usually not the case. Some chakras are not open enough (being under-active), and to compensate, other chakras are over-active. The ideal state is where the chakras are balanced. To find out what the state of your chakras is, do the chakra test. There exist lots of techniques to balance the chakras. Mostly techniques to open chakras are used. It makes no sense to try to make over-active chakras less active, as they are compensating for other chakras. To restore the compensation they'd be over-active again in no time. To stop them from compensating, the chakras they are compensating for must be opened," Ash interrupted, his words strong and clear, yet quiet to avoid waking the others.

Jake blinked.

"Yes that covers all the basis of chakra. Now for the tricky part, you need to learn to control your chakras to allow for actions that are otherwise impossible, as chakra actually flows through your body like your blood. It also has a load of certain points… around 300 or so, that help maintain your chakra as they move further from the chakra centers to all parts of your body. The most important center is the Crown Chakra in your head, as that is the one that allows your mentality to perceive what is possible and what's not. So collect the chakra in the center of your body and concentrate it on your feet. It helps to visualize your feet sticking to the ground, and then try climbing that tree…without your hands," Jake responded.

Ash looked at the tree in determination and ran at it, stepping onto the trunk and running right up its length before stopping halfway up. Ash was then standing on the side of the tree looking at his feet in amazement. It was an impressive sight to Jake, a normal person have perfect Chakra control. Suddenly Ash let out a laugh and broke his concentration, making him slip and fall to the ground with a thud. Almost perfect…

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel yawned widely and woke up to see a pair of smoky grey eyes right in her face.

"Boo."

"AHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed in fright.

Jake chuckled and stood up straight, brushing off his shirt, which was covered in dust. At the same time almost everyone else was waking up as if it was due to some contrived plot device because the author was too lazy to wake them up individually. May was the next to get up and immediately noticed the lack of warmth near her. She stood up and frantically looked from left to right but there was no sign of Ash anywhere. Almost immediately tears began gathering near her eyes and threatened to spill out as she imagined scenarios of her friend being tortured or murdered.

"Ash is missing!" May cried.

"I'm up here May!"

May looked skywards and saw Ash standing at the very top of a high tree, on a large branch that had no leaves. Ash grinned and waved while May gaped in amazement.

"There's a great view from up here, this tree must be forty metres tall!" Ash called down to everyone. "It's a bit breezy though, I might fall."

"Ash, get down from there!" May shouted up fearfully.

Ash shrugged and stepped off the branch he was standing on, drawing gasps from everyone except Jake. May shut her eyes in fear and waited….but there was nothing. No splat or scream or anything, just laughing. May opened her eyes a crack and looked up slowly, never blinking. Ash was still on the tree, laughing as he stood on the underside of the branch. Angel's mouth hung open stupidly as she tried to comprehend as to how the boy was doing that. Rebekah and Jimmy were equally as confused but they weren't catching Beautiflies with their mouths like Angel. On the ground all eyes turned to Jake who sweatdropped at everyone's expression.

"What? I didn't teach him that in the middle of the night while everyone was sleeping!" he protested.

All glares intensified apart from one.

"Ok then who did?" May asked.

Everyone sweatdropped at May's naivety and Ash shouted down to them.

"Hey look I'm standing upside down!" he yelled, trying to get attention.

"Be careful!" May shouted up, fearing for his life.

"I'm fin-," Ash started.

It was just then however that Ash's feet disconnected with the branch. As usual with the laws of physics Ash did the only possible and logical thing he could. He fell…

"Oh shit," he squeaked as the ground approached.

Ash threw his arms up over his heads and kicked both his legs forwards, momentum making him start to spin over backwards in the air. The extra drag this created on him slowed him down just enough to hit the ground heavily on his feet and stagger sideways into Mizu, who had been watching quietly since she woke up. Mizu fell sideways and landed on her ass hard, making her cry out in surprise. Suddenly, there was a ripping sound and everyone gasped in shock. Mizu now had seven foot long metallic wings sticking out of her back, shining a bright sliver. They were curved and pointed at the top and bottom, making them look like angular axe heads. Mizu glowered at Ash, who had blood running down his face from a cut on his face he received when her wings shot out.

"Ash you're bleeding!" May cried sadly, running over with a bandage.

Ash winced as the bandage was applied and got up off the ground, brushing himself down, before he offered his hand to Mizu, who accepted it and Ash pulled her to her feet, noticing how extremely light she was. May sighed and stroked Ash's cheek gently with the back of her hand and Ash looked into May's eyes in surprise. Her eyes were glistening which indicated that she was close to crying and Ash pulled her into a strong hug, ignoring the awes and oohs of his friends around him.

"Ash you scared me so much, I was worried about you!" May whimpered.

"I'm okay May. Relax now, I'm okay." Ash replied soothingly.

"But that was scary!" May cried unhappily.

Angel, Jake, Mizu and the others sighed and turned from the couple, before beginning to walk up the Route towards Mt Pyre and further beyond…Mt Chimney. Ash noticed this and released May, but keeping a hold of one of her hands, and ran after them quickly. May almost fell but managed to pump her legs fast enough to just keep up with Ash. Seeing him run like that made May blush slightly as certain thoughts crossed her mind, which shouldn't have been there. May mentally yelled at herself and as a result, lost her concentration on running. She suddenly tripped and almost hit the dirt hard, which would've torn her skin and clothes up. Fortunately Ash skidded to a halt, causing May to fall into his arms. May blinked and looked up to her saviour before getting to her feet again and following Ash as he continued his pursuit of the others.

"Hey wait up!" he called.

Jake stopped and looked back at them, before grinning and taking off, running away from them. Angel the rest caught on and dashed away from Ash but none as fast as Rebekah, who was almost out of sight by the time Ash noticed they were running from them. May nearly cried in fatigue at the running when she saw her friends escaping, however Ash came up and picked her up, swinging her over his left shoulder, where Pikachu usually sat, however the electric mouse was sitting on the right shoulder today. May was amazed at how muscular Ash's shoulders had become, his biceps also looking quite toned.

"Wow…" she whispered as Ash accelerated.

Now May was hanging onto Ash as he dashed after Jake, who was still about 30m ahead of them. Ash increased his speed and hunkered down for momentum, yet again accelerating. Jake looked back and was shocked to see that Ash had closed half the distance between them, but he was clearly straining, beads of sweat dripping down from under his hat. Jake grinned and, thanks to his unique abilities, accelerated so much that Ash could hear the air rushing past the polymorph. Ash could only slow down to a stop and let May off his shoulder as he gasped for air. But they'd catch up sooner or later…hopefully sooner.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Ash and May walked up to the Fortree Pokemon Center, barely able to stand. Jake and the rest had just entered, as Ash and May finally caught up. May was dead on her feet and Ash was carrying her bridal style towards the automatic doors, which slid open to admit entrance. In front of the pair was the main desk with various couches at the walls, the nearest of which sat Angel, Jake and Mizu. The next one on had Jimmy and Rebekah, who were whispering conspiratorially to each other, with many laughs and giggles. On Ash's back Pikachu cheered for her trainer's success at reaching their destination, but Ash was too tired to notice. He dragged himself and May to the next couch and fell against it heavily, May landing on his lap. The Coordinator was fast asleep and not even the sudden movement was enough to rouse her from her slumber. Ash groaned in relief and gently stroked May's hair as she slept. Her hair smelled like strawberries and was soft and light to touch. This comforted Ash and Pikachu, who was sitting next to her trainer, nearly asleep too.

"Goodnight Pikachu. Sleep tight," Ash mumbled before nodding off.

As he did so Angel and the others smiled, amazed at the trainer's determination to get to the Center. Outside dark clouds were slowly gathering in the sky and Jake felt a thunderstorm on the way. However this on was natural, and not being instigated by a strange girl with a jolting appearance. Finally a break from the large amount of sunthat had been causing Jake to get headaches, not being accustomed to the bright light of daytime. Nearby, Angel and Rebekah were singing and laughing together.

"Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me," Angel sang loudly.

"Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo," Rebekah added.

"Galileo Figaro – magnificoooooooooo!" the pair nearly shouted.

"But I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me," Jimmy put in, playing along.

"He's just a poor boy from a poor family," Mizu sang happily.

"Spare him his life from this monstrosity!" the three girls yelled.

"Easy come easy go, will you let me go?" Jimmy sang again.

"Bismillah! No, we will not let you go-let him go," Jake, Angel, Rebekah, and Mizu sang.

"Bismillah! We will not let you go-let him go," Jake, Angel, Rebekah, and Mizu sang again.

"Bismillah! We will not let you go-let me go," Jake, Angel, Rebekah, and Mizu sang once more.

"Will not let you go-let me go!" Jimmy shouted.

"Will not let you go-let me go," The four other trainers sang.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" All five squealed.

"Mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go," Jimmy sang. "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for meeeeeeee!"

The five trainers collapsed back on the couches, laughing heavily at their own antics. Jake glanced over at May and Ash, sweat-dropping at the earmuffs they both had on. Oh well, he and the others would get them next time. Jake grinned as he thought of a good wake up call that he could give the pair. Next to him Angel was talking with Mizu, while on the next couch Jimmy and Rebekah were kissing again. Jake sighed and fell asleep, his head hitting Angel's shoulder as he snored.

"As I was saying before deadweight here hit me, what was with those wings? It was almost… mechanical," Angel asked.

"Fine I'll tell you. I am actually a pokemorph too but unlike any in the world. I am a super combination of an Espeon, Umbreon, and Skarmory. The mutant gene which I told you about makes me immune to Bug moves and I'm also immune to Poison moves because of my Steel-type characteristics…but against Fighting-types I'm doubly weak because of my Steel and Dark-types abilities. My wings are a combination of compressing an object into a small space and a mental link with electronics, meaning I can sprout my wings whenever I want. I also have claws that come out of the space between my knuckles on both hands…it hurts so much whenever I let out my claws or even my wings that I barely ever use them," Mizu explained. "I've never thought of a name for my morph form, I have one like you have the Articuno form."

"How about…," Angel racked her brains for a name.

"Chimeria…," Ash grunted in his sleep.

"Good enough," Angel replied.

Mizu grinned when she heard the name and immediately decided to adopt it as her own. She sighed slightly as her eyelids began drooping as fatigue settled in. Being a psychic she had never had to run as far as she had in the last three hours, which exhausted her easily. Next to her Angel was in a similar state, nearly dropping off. Mizu sighed and collapsed sideways, her head landing on Angel's lap, while Angel's head just keeled back, both girls snoring slightly as they entered sleep. The only ones left awake were Jimmy and Rebekah, who were still kissing…or so it would seem. In fact they were asleep too but their heads were against each other, making look as though they were kissing too. Needless to say many people would have sore joints in the morning.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Ash woke up surprisingly early to find May awake next to him, staring at his face. A small line of droll was emanating from the corner of her mouth. As soon as May noticed he was conscious she wiped it away and blushed, her head to the side. Ash laughed and stood, stretching to the ceiling and emitting all sorts of pops and cracks as his joints settled. Out of his pocket fell his newest screw-up, a combination of a gaming console and a pokeball, so that bored trainers would have something to do, while they caught their pokemon. May noticed and watched as, in slow motion, the ball fell and hit the floor with a crack. Angel, Jake and Mizu were right next to them when the ball opened…

"What happened?" asked Jimmy as he and Rebekah walked over.

…And the ball sucked them all inside.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel opened her eyes to see the sun glaring down on her. She groaned, not liking the weather. _'Wait, wasn't it supposed to rain today?'_ She thought. Angel looked around her and her mouth dropped as she laid eyes on the rest of her friends, who were standing up. All of them were wearing some kind of costume. The one who got her attention the most however was Jake, who had a long black trench coat on, with dark grey hair. Under the jacket he was wearing black boots and combat trousers, and a white t-shirt. The only thing missing was his scarf, which seemed to have been replaced with a huge broadsword, strapped to his back. Next to him was Mizu, who was wearing dark robes with a purple eye embossed on the hood, which was pulled over her head. Then was May, who was wearing a Japanese-style pink outfit with pink shorts, a white kimono top with pink stripes around the edges, and a pair of pink bows in her hair. Strapped to each leg was a wicked sharp elbow blade, which would be held in each hand. Ash was wearing ragged black trousers and a sleeveless trenchcoat like Jake's however his was red with gold stripes and was torn up at the bottom. He also had brown leather boots and a long wooden staff in hand. Jimmy was wearing, strangely enough, a green spandex outfit with orange leg braces and an orange sash around his waist. On his hands up to his elbows were bandages for some reason and Jimmy was flexing his fingers experimentally. Rebekah however had the best outfit in Angel's opinion. She had a blue headband around her forehead with navy blue shorts on her legs. On top of that was a short sleeved dress that, instead of a skirt like bottom, had slits in the sides, making one part hang under her waist and the other under back. Around her ankles and wrists were bandages like Jimmy's and she had red sandal-like shoes on. Neither Jimmy nor Rebekah, or Mizu had any sort of weapon in their hands. Angel finally stood and everyone glared at Ash.

"Okay genius, now where are we?" Angel snarled.

* * *

**Ooooh, where have the group been sent to and why is everyone dressed strangely? No comments on how much the characters look like other characters because I don't wanna hear it. If you have a problem with it then don't read. However not fear I'll update again soon, I promise…just like I promised Angel some ice cream.**

**Angel: ICE CREAM!**

**I'd better go feed her then. In the next chapter we'll find out exactly where everyone was sent to and how they get out. And yet another bad guy is going to be added to the ranks of villains along the way. Review and share your thoughts with me cause the amount of reviews I get per chapter has started to dry up. Unless I know from you what I can improve upon I can't keep making my story better, but that won't stop me writing. Uh oh… Angel's raiding the freezer again. I'd better go stop her. Cya!**

**Angel: ICE CREAM!**


	23. Chapter 23: It's All TechnoBabble To Me

**Dark Angel**

**_Yo everyone. I have the next chapter here for you to enjoy. This is where we find out what has happened to our heroes and where they now are. Who knows what'll happen, I don't I don't really plan ahead on this thing. I write it as it comes, ideas springing up when I least expect it. Last night I burned a patch of my hand off having an idea while cooking some noodles on the cooker. Not a smart thing… ouch. Anyway let's on with this, hope you like it. Oh and if you really wanna know what Angel's supposed to look like, find the blue haired girl from Valkyrie Profile. Also because I bumped this up to M rated there's gonna be more gore and bloodshed from now on. Also some swearing and possible Limey scenes in later chapters. If you have any ideas for interesting plot twists and filler chapters then please tell me about them. All ideas will be seriously considered, and the few that show the greatest originality may be put in the story._**

**Chapter 23: It's All Techno-Babble to Me**

"Alright genius, now where are we!" Angel snarled at Ash.

Ash seemed to think for a few minutes, ignoring the fact that he didn't have a proper shirt on. May had a small trail of drool coming out of the corner of her mouth that she wiped away at infrequent intervals, but she was yet to realize that she also had a minor nosebleed. Finally Ash snapped his fingers and looked up, his eyes gleaming with understanding. Angel raised an eyebrow and waited for him to share his revelation with everyone. However it was a revelation that few of them wanted to hear, most particularly Angel, who was anxious to get to Mt Chimney again.

"We're inside the game I installed on this ball. I programmed an RPG/Fighting game on the top of the ball and the buffer was removed on this one too, sucking us in. It's quite amazing really, I had no idea this would happen," Ash said, twirling his staff around in one hand.

"Hey Angel what's with the Valkyrie outfit?" Jake suddenly asked, pointing at her.

Angel looked down and finally noticed what she herself was wearing. Strapped to each arm was a dark blue gauntlet that reached her elbows, both having golden bands across the part that covered her hands. Her torso was covered by similar dark blue armour which switched to purple as the armour extended to her stomach. Separating the two colours were more gold bands, crossing her waist and over her breastbone, crisscrossing each other. The armour ended at a pointed part covering her crotch and attached to the rim was a two piece skirt, pale cream in colour. At the bottom of the skirts were black crisscross designs and underneath the skirt were a pair of armoured dark blue boots, with plated knee protectors. On Angel's head was a blue forehead protector, again adorned with golden stripes. Her usually three-spiked hair had grown twice as long and was in a long rope-like braid, made of three segments. As Angel turned her head she noticed a long sword strapped to her waist in a purple sheath. The sword had an intricate handle of red, with a golden cross guard that angled downwards like horns. Along with the cross guard there were two more sliver protrusions that were serrated at the edges and felt sharp to even look at. Angel eased the sword from its scabbard and slashed it through the air in front of her. It left a trail of blue sparkles in its wake that froze whatever they touched solid.

"Wow. That's pretty cool. Now then, how do we get out of here?" Angel asked.

"Why not stay? I think we look cool," May declared.

"Speak for yourself moron, I'm wearing spandex!" Jimmy said tragically.

Just as he finished his sentence he was smacked in the head by Ash's bo-staff, and a big red 12 flashed above him. Rebekah looked at it in confusion, shaking her head slightly. Jake however looked completely nonplussed about the whole situation, and Mizu was meditating on the ground. Jimmy got up, rubbing his head and glared angrily at Ash. Ash gave him a similar look, and both teens glared at each other, never blinking. May and Rebekah watched in concern as they began to argue.

"What the fuck was that for!" Jimmy yelled angrily.

"No one insults May. No one," Ash replied coldly. "Not since what that evil bastard Harley did."

"You better apologize before I knock you on your ass!" Jimmy retorted.

"Try it…," Ash said dully.

Jimmy rushed forwards at incredible speeds but was suddenly stopped by an elbow blade at his throat. He gulped, feeling the sharpness of the blade just by looking at it.

"Enough," May said angrily. "You too Ash, this isn't how friends should behave. I shouldn't have said anything stupid, I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry!" Ash and Jimmy answered in unison.

They looked guiltily at the other and then both of them grinned wolfishly. Ash brought his staff over his shoulder and found several clasps on the back of his coat that the staff slid into, effectively holstering it. However because Jimmy, not having a weapon, just shrugged and sat on the grass heavily, stretching his arms. All seven teens looked at their surroundings, noticing for the first time that they were in a large field, with a small village in the distance. Smoke was rising from several chimneys, indicating life of some kind. Ash gazed at it, then at the field again, before chuckling.

"What is it?" Jake asked, looking menacing with his broadsword.

"We're in the first level. This is the Green Field zone, where we find various monsters to fight. Ahead in the town we get a mission or two that gives us various rewards. Since this is a multiplayer game I installed, people can connect together and do tasks with each other. Let me see…," he trailed off.

Ash frowned in thought and suddenly a flat panel appeared before him, showing an image of himself with writing and numbers next to it.

_Ash Ketchum  
Type: Warrior  
Level: 15  
HP: 700  
MP: 100  
Current Weapon: Wooden Staff_

Angel looked at it in confusion, as did most others.

"What's that?" she asked.

"It's an info board that shows your stats. Just think of it and it'll appear," Ash replied.

All other members of the group concentrated and suddenly six more boards sprung to life.

_Angel Star  
Type: Elemental  
Level: 18  
HP: 900  
MP: 500  
Current Weapon: Glacier Sword_

_Mizu Star  
Type: Magician_

_Level: 21  
HP: 500_

_MP: 1000_

_Current Weapon: Psychic Eye_

_Jake Paterson_

_Type: Warrior_

_Level: 20_

_HP: 950_

_MP: 300_

_Current Weapon: Broadsword_

_Jimmy Rozenko_

_Type: Fighter_

_Level: 16_

_HP: 1200_

_MP: 1_

_Current Weapon: Dynamic Knuckle_

_May Maple_

_Type: Hybrid_

_Level: 17_

_HP: 600_

_MP: 600_

_Current Weapon: Tonfa_

_Rebekah Torche_

_Type: Elemental_

_Level: 19_

_HP: 980_

_MP: 545_

_Current Weapon: Volcano Foot_

All friends looked up and studied each other's boards when they had finished with their own. Most of the teens were surprised that Rebekah's last name was Torche, considering she was a Fire-Type. But one thing confused most of the group. The Classes which they were all categorised into. Ash helped by explaining what they all meant.

"It's pretty simple. HP is Health Points obviously no doubt. MP is Magic points, which means that those with high MP are bound to have magical attacks. Finally the classes decide what you are strong or weak against. Me, being a Warrior, I have high attack and HP, but low MP. Angel, being an Elemental is like a Hybrid, who has about equal MP and HP but she focuses on one type of magic, Ice. Mizu is a Magician so she has low attack and HP but really high MP and good magical attacks. Finally, there's Jimmy who is the only Fighter that we have in our group. They have really high HP, moderate attack and no MP for anything, so they are pretty good too. The order goes of strongest goes, Warrior beats Fighter, Fighter beats Magician, Magician beats Elemental, Elemental beats Hybrid, Hybrid beats Warrior," he said happily.

"O…k… I kinda lost you but I understand the type differences now. So what do we do to get out of here?" Rebekah asked.

"We don't. Only if someone opens the ball will we be released. Fortunately I fixed the clothes bug so we will still be wearing something when we materialize. As for the costumes they're part of the game, I suggest we just play it out for the time being. On a better note, any experience we gain here will count towards reality, because we are physically in this game, if we're hurt we are actually hurt in real life. But as we get stronger we will physically become stronger," Ash explained once more.

"Right then, those who want to play raise their hand now," Angel said loudly.

Everyone raised their hand, including Jake and Mizu.

"And those who don't can raise their hand," Angel added, raising her own.

"Oh come on Angel, this sounds like fun! Besides we get stronger!" Jake pleaded.

"But we're supposed to get to Mt Chimney and demolish that Rocket Lab. That's the place where they experimented on me!" Angel yelled angrily.

Jake stepped back involuntarily and turned away from Angel, his eyes clouded over. Without a word he began walking away from the group, intent on leaving Angel alone for a while. However before he had gone seven steps there was a flash and suddenly all seven heroes were standing side by side, facing against five cruel looking monsters. They looked like zombified Raticate, making Ash squeamish as he looked at them. May winced when one of the rats, that had an eye dangling by its socket from its face, roared at them, blood dripping steadily from the various infected wounds covering them. One of them even had a patch of its head missing, showing a greenish, rotting brain in a yellowing skull.

"What the fuck is this? I don't have time for this shit!" Angel screamed, turning to leave.

However an info board appeared in front of her saying, "UNABLE TO ESCAPE". Angel growled and turned around again, looking at the evil rats with fury.

"How does this work?" Angel asked Ash.

"There's a bar above you that fills up, when it's full you can use your turn. It's the same for the enemy and below you are your HP and MP bars. Just think of an attack you know and you'll execute it. Watch it's my turn," Ash said calmly.

Ash's status board appeared but instead it had a list of commands on it. There was: ATTACK, MAGIC, ITEM, and RUN on the board. Ash selected ATTACK and suddenly he dashed forward, his staff in hand. As if he was on auto-pilot he attacked one of the Raticates with a series of fast jabs and swipes, dealing a total of 30 damage. However each rat had 100 HP and so there were 5 rats ready to attack. Mizu noticed her turn was ready and so she opened her menu and looked in the MAGIC menu. There was a move called Protect, like the move a pokemon used, which cost 15 MP so she activated it. Just in time as two of the five rats attacked her but their attacks bounced off a golden shield around her, keeping her safe. The other three attacked Angel, May and Jimmy respectively dealing 66 damage to Angel, 50 to Jimmy, and 61 to May. All three teens yelped in pain and clutched their wounds. Angel's shoulder had been cut open by the rat's crooked fangs and blood was dripping from under her hand, staining the grass. Angel panicked and tried her best to cover the ragged wound with a hand to stop the bleeding, but the aching throb from it was too much and her hand fell away.

"My turn!" May called, recovering from the bite in her side.

She opened her own MAGIC menu and scanned through it quickly. Down near the bottom was a move called Whirlwind Fang, which she executed. Suddenly the surroundings flashed to show May jumping into the air, pulling a scroll from her pocket. The other six found they were unable to look away and watched intently. May opened the scroll, revealing how long it was as it swirled around her. On the scroll were strange symbols that meant nothing to the others, but May seemed to understand. She lifted her left hand and bit her thumb, drawing blood, and smearing it on a bare patch of the scroll. Suddenly there was a loud swooping noise and dozens of sharp tonfas appeared in the air around May, spinning slightly. May began spinning in the air, whipping up a twister and shot all the projectiles at the five rats, dealing 80 damage to each of them, subsequently killing one. The slain rat vanished without a trace. May then returned to her normal position with 50 less health and a severely drained MP bar.

"Wow….," Ash said quietly.

"Indeed," Mizu agreed.

"It's my move!" Rebekah and Jake announced.

Jake opted to do a normal attack, while Rebekah chose the Fireball MP attack. Rebekah's fireball erupted from one of her hands and rushed through the air, waves of heat emanating from it as it flew. The fireball collided with another rat and dealt 40 damage, killing that one. Jake's attack was similar to that of what he usually did, but with a twist. He ran forward, pulling his broadsword from its sheath and flipped into the air, spinning over the rat and landing three hits of 10 damage each. A third rat was vanquished leaving 2 remaining, both of which attacked Ash. Ash grunted in pain as one sank its fangs into his leg and another bit his arm, drawing blood from both limbs and dealing a total of 130 damage. May gasped and tears began collecting at her eyes.

"It's my move again," Mizu announced serenely.

She opened her MAGIC menu once more and activated Purity of Soul, which bathed the entire group in a bright blue light. Angel thought the light was quite pretty but was disappointed when it vanished. However she noticed that her arm no longer hurt. She looked at her elbow and was astounded to see that it had stopped bleeding, and there was no wound at all. Just to be sure Angel looked under her to her HP bar and saw that it was completely full. As was Ash's, Jimmy's and May's. But it was also Angel's turn now.

"Let's rock!" Angel cried.

She opened her MAGIC menu and spotted a move called Glacial Wind that required 30 MP. Angel selected the move and her wings spread out, lifting her into the air and they flapped. When Angel reached ten feet her wings began beating very fast, out of her control. Suddenly a big gale filled with ice and snow washed over the remaining two rats and gave them both 25HP damage, killing them and emptying the field of enemies.

"Game Over," Ash said.

A loud cheering sound suddenly played and above each person appeared a large blue number. Angel looked at her own number and saw a 115. The number suddenly began reducing at a high speed and as it did so, Angel felt herself getting slightly stronger. All six others got some experience points and grew stronger as well. Ash cheered, jumping up and down while May tried to hug him. Jake however walked over to Angel and stared into her eyes. Without a word he pulled her into an embrace like May was attempting to do with Ash. Angel gasped slightly at Jake's action but relaxed in his hold.

"I'm sorry Angel. I shouldn't have ignored our mission," he said quietly, his voice filled with regret.

"No. I'm sorry Jake, we never get to have much fun and I admit that it was nice to fight like that. I say we should stay, we're not going anywhere soon," she replied happily.

Jake smiled and released Angel, holstering his broadsword once he had stepped back. Angel sweatdropped and asked him if the thing had still been in his hand when he had hugged her. Jake grinned and looked away, gazing at the village in the distance. He could even make out the moving forms of people; the quality of this world was incredible. Ash beckoned the group to follow and set off at a steady jog, not wanting to fight more enemies before they reached town. Unfortunately this wasn't the case, as a sudden flash indicated another monster battle, just before reaching the village. Instead of rats however this was a green, scab-covered, Jigglypuff. Its breathing was heavily laboured and blood seeped from one of its red, bloodshot eyes. Various huge gashes in its hide could clearly reveal its internal organs and Mizu had to resist the urge to throw up. The monster roared at them, blood flying from its mouth like spit and flecking the group. Jake narrowed his eyes and carefully watched his Turn Bar. However Jimmy got there first.

"Hey I have a MAGIC menu too! Wonder what's there?" he declared excitedly.

Jimmy touched the menu and was disappointed to find he only had one attack, Taijutsu Archetype. The raven haired teen had enough language experience to know that Archetype was Latin for Ultimate and Taijutsu was a word for hand-to-hand combat. So it basically said Ultimate Combat. Jimmy shrugged and selected the attack nonchalantly. A cut-scene played like when May used her Whirlwind Fang attack, but this time it was a little darker. Jimmy felt himself run towards the Jigglypuff and slid across the ground, placing his feet under it. He suddenly kicked upwards and the Jigglypuff soared vertically. Jimmy jumped up and followed it, upside down while continuing to kick it. It was like defying gravity for him, and when he reached around twenty feet Jimmy felt himself kick the Jigglypuff back down, hurtling it to the ground. However his bandaged arms came to life, the bandages unravelling and wrapping around the poor zombie. Jimmy then spun it around like a pinwheel and threw it back upwards. When Jimmy landed he automatically jumped back up and booted the mutant down again. It hit the ground hard, leaving a small crater in the grass covered dirt. However Jimmy wasn't done yet… He went into a forwards spin, building loads of momentum as he fell back towards the monster. Clasping his re-bandaged hands he brought his fists down like a big club, crashing into the Jigglypuff and bouncing off, lightly landing on the ground in front of it. Behind him the damage calculation couldn't keep up and the Jigglypuff simply exploded, with the red word Overkill flashing above it.

"Whoo-hoo!" Rebekah squealed happily as experience was dealt out to all.

Jimmy grinned and gave her the thumbs up, but suddenly cried out in pain and hunched over, clutching his stomach. Everyone started towards him but stopped when he coughed and hacked out blood onto the ground. Ash quickly pulled up a statistic board on Jimmy and read his HP bar. His reaction was immediate and predictable.

"What!"

Rebekah was next to him immediately and paled at the sight of the lone 1 glaring at her. Jimmy meanwhile, was still coughing but he seemed to be recovering slightly. Ash glanced at him worriedly; not knowing what would happen if he was attacked again. Rebekah was crying silently and everyone else was whispering to one another, not knowing what to do. Ash cleared his throat loudly to gain everyones attention, Jimmy crouching on the ground, breathing heavily.

"Okay Jimmy's been hurt, probably because his attack damages himself too. I know I speak for everyone when I say that attack should only be used as a last resort," Ash said loudly, earning nods from the others. "However Jimmy is in immediate danger if we don't get him into that town and find a way to heal him. Even I don't know what'll happen if Jimmy takes another hit."

Everyone nodded and formed a protective perimeter around Jimmy, keeping him out of harm's way. Fortunately Jimmy had regained his posture and was able to walk properly, however doing so caused bolts of pain to make his muscles spasm slightly. Rebekah kept an eye on him, worried for his safety, but trusting in Ash to keep him alive. They reached the town with only one batte along the way, killing the enemies on their first turn before the monsters could react.

"We're here. What do we do?" Rebekah asked.

"We go to the Pokemon Center," Ash replied, pointing to a building.

Everyone looked and had to stifle a laugh. It was a Pokemon Center alright. But it was filled with people in the strangest outfits, like girls with cat ears and men with tuxedoes or armour. Angel noticed that one girl there looked remarkably like Gray, demon horns protruding from her head and a pointed black tail from her backside. However that was where the resemblance ended, as the virtual person in the Center was clearly evil or demonic, unlike Gray who was just different. Ash got Jimmy's arm and helped him walk to the Center, pulling him through the double doors. Rebekah, Angel, Mizu, Jake, and May followed them inside and looked around. It was an unremarkable place, the same couches and even the same Nurse Joy at the desk. The only thing different was the people. There were people who resembled cavemen, with their style of clothing but they had metal shields and shiny swords, made of strong metal. Rebekah noticed none of this as she panicked when Jimmy's face started to lose it's colour. Ash quickened and dragged the boy over to the Nurse Joy, who was wearing a metallice breastplate, that was pink and a torn white skirt. Strapped to her back was a long marble staff, which had some kind of jewel on it.

"Healing please!" Ash called to her.

The nurse noticed him and ushered over, her pink boots making little noise on the tiled floor.

"What happened to him? He's almost out!" she cried in alarm.

Despite herself May had to smile, Ash had made a perfect impression of Nurse Joy. Rebekah and the others watched in awe as the nurse pulled her staff from its holster and spun it around rapidly in her hands, holding it to her side. A blue glow enveloped Jimmy and he rose into the air slightly, making it look like he was lying down in midair. Joy then twirled her staff above her own head and brought it swishing through the air, just over Jimmy. A light pink dust fell on him and suddenly his health bar appeared and, with the sound of a cannon going off, it blew right to full health in under a second. Rebekah was dumbstruck, as was Angel, May, and even Jake slightly. Jimmy's eyes shot open and he fell to his feet, landing lightly on the floor. He looked to Ash and the others and noticed their expressions.

"What?" he asked.

"That was the most fucked-up way of healing I've ever seen!" Rebekah cried in amazement.

May cuffed the blonde girl on the back of the head, muttering about language. Rebekah ignored it and leapt onto Jimmy, latching to his front as if he would disappear at any second. Jimmy managed to stay upright and held Rebekah to him, sighing happily. Ash sniggered behind his hand and winked to May, who caught the look and grinned herself. In the background Mizu was turning a page in a book, apparently not interested, while Jake was talking with one of the 'people' that filled the Center. Ash sighed and cleared his throat loudly, gathering everyone's attention.

"Ok. What do we do now?" Ash asked, making everyone facefault.

Angel looked around at the other six teens and then outside of the nearest window. The virtual sky was clear and sunny, meaning that it probably wouldn't rain, but who knew what Ash might've programmed into the game. Angel shrugged mentally and glanced at Jake, who was eyeing various people in the lobby, most likely assessing their threat potential. May opened her mouth to begin speaking but suddenly raucous laughter erupted from the other side of the bar, diverting her attention. Everyone turned to see a tall man, swathed in black robes, laughing heartily beside two other people. Jake tuned his ear in to listen.

"_That bunch of kids didn't stand a chance against my monsters! My minions wiped the floor with the one in the green pyjamas, ha, ha, ha!" _the guy said. _"And that girl with the blonde hair she just blew them up with a fireball! I swear if I found her I'd—."_

Jake tuned out again, not needing to hear more.

"There's the bastard," he said, pointing at the robed man.

Jimmy visibly tensed and ran through the throng of people, his fists raised to his sides, ready to punch. The robed man noticed him and raised a black gloved hand, a purple glow emanating from it and casting a purple shadow on the floor, in the shape of a pentagram. Jimmy stopped and blanched when the pentagram split into three and suddenly there were three human sized shadows pulling themselves from the floor, glaring at him with solid red eyes. Rebekah took notice and ran forward too, even faster than Jimmy. She slid to the side of her body and skidded past the shadows, jumping to her feet behind them. She then dashed forward and did a mid-air roundhouse kick to the first shadow thing's face, landing on her side and still spinning. Jimmy and the other could only watch in amazement as she continued her spin, kicking at the shadow's legs and then spinning onto her back, her hands lifting her from the ground, her legs a perfect one hundred and eighty degrees, landing a devastating triple kick. The shadow fell back and vanished. Rebekah then pushed from her hands and backflipped to her feet, drawing back her right fist. A second shadow was converging on her position and she swung out, her fist on fire, cutting the shadow down to ashes. Rebekah then drew back her left hand and did the same to the shadow that was just behind her, vaporizing that one too. The fourth and final one was dispatched when Rebekah went onto one hand and swung both her legs sideways, catching the thing around its neck between her legs. With a tremendous heave Rebekah threw the ting into the ground, crushing it, before she bounced backwards over in the air onto her feet once more.

"Whoah…," Jimmy whistled.

"You kick that Necromancer's ass!" Ash called to Rebekah.

Rebekah suddenly collapsed onto one knee however, panting in exhaustion. Her eyes shot open, seeing two more shadows rising from the ground ahead of her, courtesy of the necromancer as Ash had called him just a few seconds ago. However as they got to their feet (if you could call them feet) a bunch of holes appeared in them, as gunshots were heard. Rebekah looked round to see May holding two handguns, both firing bullets in rapid succession. The handguns were red and white in design, the sides of the barrel with the red plating and the rest was white. It reminded Ash of May's previous red and white outfit she wore before she changed it to the green and red one. May had a look of utter concentration on her face as she hit the two shades with a barrage of ammo. The shades then collapsed and vanished, making May cheer in delight. A single bullet fired from her gun as she aimed once more, this one having a yellow glow around it. The bullet drilled through the air, leaving rings of distortion in its wake, and it smacked into the chest of the Necromancer, dealing 68 points of damage to him. The group's celebrations were cut short once more as said person raised his arm again and summoned another five shades. May had a huge sweatdrop on the side of her head as she stared incredulously at the man who had just tried to kill Jimmy and Rebekah. The five shades converged into one massive shade, whose head brushed the ceiling. Angel grinned and twirled her sword in her grip, feeling its artic powers growing. She raised her free hand and, with a jolt of energy, she unleashed a furious Ice Beam that separated into four bolts of ice, pelting the monster hard. Jake leapt into the fray after that, kicking the creature's legs to buckle them inwards and then he swung his sword, using the flat of the blade to launch the creature into the ceiling…and right through it. All seven teens jumped after it, Jake taking the lead. He spun his sword in one hand and slashed it down, blasting the creatures diagonally down to the ground, where a row of ice spikes were appearing out of the ground to catch it. The giant shades bounced over the top of them, piercing itself quite badly, until Angel burst out of one of the spikes, using a point-blank Ice Beam to freeze the shade solid. In the distance Mizu saw her chance to finish the creature and used her hands together to form a ball of electricity, which she threw outwards. The electrical beam struck the ice block, superheating it until….it exploded violently, destroying the creature completely.

"Oh yeah!" Rebekah cried.

"Booyah!" Jimmy agreed loudly.

May laughed at their antics. Angel and Jake walked over, brushing themselves off as they came. Mizu was looking serenely happy too, in her distant way. Ash grinned and tried to grab May around the shoulder and kiss her but something made his arm freeze. Ash looked at his arm and gasped when it began to disappear, from the fingers first.

"Oh shit!" he cried.

Angel noticed what was happening but could do anything as her feet had just vanished. Jake and the other were disappearing too, yet none of them knew the reason for it. May was the last to start disappearing and looked up. In the sky there was a white light calling down to them from the heavens and May heard its call. She smiled while her friends around her panicked as they vanished from existence one by one. May was the last one to fade away as she thought to herself, _'We're going home.'_

**Wow that was cool! I liked writing this chapter, but I couldn't think of how to make it longer. Just appear, panic, fight, panic, disappear in that order. As I have said before all ideas are welcome, just let me know. I'll update again as soon as school work dies down a bit, there's been a lot this week alone. Anyway LaTeR DaYz**


	24. Chapter 24: Now You've Crossed The Line!

**Dark Angel**

**Sorry for being gone for so long, I've started some SG tests and got loads of essays for English too. But have no fear as I am still writing away! So with further to do, here's Chapter 24!!! In this chapter there'll be intrigue, surprise, and ebil laughter… also an unoriginal idea about how Ash got so smart, but hey it's still funny. Lol

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**Chapter 24: Now You've Really Crossed the Line**

Angel felt as though her body was being ripped to pieces and put back together again very roughly, many times over as she was rematerialized in the real world. As her hearing returned slowly she could hear the familiar sound of a pokeball summoning a pokemon, but she knew it was really summoning her. Unfortunately she was still unable to see, as well as unable to feel most of herself. Near her she could hear the groans of her friends and team-mates as they too were brought back to reality.

"Are you g-guys alright?" Angel asked, her voice unusually high pitched.

"Yeah… I think so…," May called back, sounding like she had swallowed helium.

"Me too," Jimmy answered as he stood up slowly.

Angel's vision was slowly returning and she could make out around about seven other people around her. _'Seven? But there were only six others…' _was her first thought. Angel blinked rapidly, the motion moisturizing her eyeballs and repairing the visual receptors much faster, allowing her to see much faster. Beside May and Rebekah was a boy around 14 years old, with long and spiked brown hair, some of which hung over the left side of his face, giving him a mysterious look. Ash rolled over on the ground, gibbering about the materialization process when he spotted the person standing directly over him.

"GARY!!" he screamed.

"Ash!" the boy shouted back.

"Gary!" Ash cried again, but more happily as he stood up.

"Me!" The boy responded.

Ash rolled his eyes but gave the young man a high five and grinned happily, as if Christmas had come early even though it had only been around a month and a half since that particular holiday. Around the two teens May and Jimmy, along with Rebekah, Mizu and Jake were getting to their feet and glancing edgily at the A-Ball, which was lying peacefully in the grass. Ash and Gary were already in a discussion about how six teenagers suddenly burst out of a discarded pokeball that Gary had picked up on his way to the local Pokemon Center, which was only around half an hour away at a leisurely walking pace. Meanwhile the others of the group were getting their heads and bodies fixed as they realized they were no longer in the virtual world.

"Angel!" Jake called, slightly limping as his joints reset themselves.

"Jake are you okay?" the Elemental Avian asked as her boyfriend hobbled over.

Jake responded by twisting around like a wrung sponge, a series of sharp cracks and groans emitted from his arms and legs. Jake winced at each pop and snap that his joints made and unravelled himself, grinning slightly. Rebekah gave him a disgusted glare but reluctantly crunched her neck joints twice and cracked her knuckles while Jimmy next to her was doing calve stretches, his leg joints also seeming to break as they made sure they were in their sockets properly.

"I'm much better," Jake replied to Angel's question, watching his other friends as he said so.

Around them the area outside the Pokemon Center was clear of other people and the stars twinkling above, like tiny glimmering crystals, indicated that it was night time. A light breeze swept through the countryside area that was the outskirts of Lilycove City. Angel realized that they had been in that same place for near enough two days now and that they still had to reach Mt Chimney before they could go anywhere else. She glanced to Ash and recalled what she had asked of him three days ago.

0o0o0o0o0o0

"_Ash?" Angel asked._

"_Yeah? What is it?" Ash replied._

_Angel sat next to the boy and watched her other friends as they frolicked around, playing happily like normal teens should've been doing._

"_I need to ask you a favour. Can you make me a powerful explosive device?" Angel asked._

_Ash turned to her sharply with an incredulous expression on his face._

"_You what?" he asked._

"_Just make one for me. Please it's very important and it needs to be powerful. Very powerful…"_

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel now fingered the grenade like object in one of her coat pockets, her finger nearly touching the rounded button that served as the trigger and timer. Once pressed she would have five minutes to drop the bomb and get at least a half mile away unless she wanted to either be incinerated or poisoned by the fumes. Nearby Ash was introducing everyone to Gary, his lifelong rival and now one of his best friends. Gary seemed to be friendly enough but there was something about him that Angel didn't like… it was like a bad smell, right under her nose. She dismissed the feeling but promised herself that she would keep an eye on this Gary boy until she was sure he could be trusted.

"So Gary, how's your research going?" Ash asked.

"I've stopped all my research temporarily and I'm on a vacation," the brunette responded unhappily.

"You don't sound too enthused," Mizu said, sounding a little concerned.

"Yeah I was working with fossils and bringing them back to life. I managed to resurrect an Aerodactyl as well… but there were problems," he answered.

"What's wrong with doing a miracle? That's great Gary!" Ash exclaimed excitedly.

"Is it?" Gary asked, pulling the fringe away from his face, exposing the rest of his face.

Ash almost screamed in shock. Gary's almost movie-star perfect face was badly marred by a mauve coloured scar running from the top of his left cheek, across his eye and up to just above his left eyebrow. The eye itself was also damaged, almost completely white showing that he was blind in that eye. The only features of it that were distinguishable were the iris, a duller white than the rest and a tiny pupil, too small to make out from a distance. May covered her mouth and let out a stifled scream of horror while the others gasped and recoiled slightly.

"Aerodactyl was always rebellious by nature and I always tried to be friends with it. But one day I disturbed it while it was sleeping and it slashed my across the face with a Metal Claw attack. I was lucky I didn't have my head ripped off!" Gary half yelled.

"Holy shit… Jeez I'm sorry Gary. I thought for sure you'd be able to do great things, and I was right. Guess it just didn't work out as well huh?" Ash replied.

Gary looked at Ash as if he'd sprouted wings, making Angel uneasy as her own wings fluttered slightly under her trenchcoat. Ash blinked twice and yawned loudly, his jaw bone cracking slightly as it made sure it was back in its correct place. May sighed at Ash's manners but decided to introduce herself to Ash's friend. She'd heard about Gary before but never had the chance to meet him, but from what Ash said he was actually a nice guy that Ash respected, though arrogant at times.

"Hello?" May said quietly to Gary.

Gary almost didn't hear it but turned anyway and spotted May for the first time. Almost immediately his eyes (or eye if you want) trailed slightly downwards towards her chest but he corrected himself quickly with a shake of his head. May didn't notice the motion but continued to introduce herself.

"I'm May, pleased to meet you Gary," she said, holding her hand out.

Gary blushed slightly but shook her hand anyway, needing all his willpower to release it even though she was wearing gloves. Ash helped Gary get introduced to Angel, Mizu, Jake, Jimmy and Rebekah in turn until all hellos and such niceties were out of the way. Then Angel walked up to Gary, who was quite a bit taller than her but she was no less intimidating, and began telling him of why there were seven teenagers travelling together for some reason.

"Ok Gary I want to make sure this stays between us and only us. We're a group of kids taking on a multinational criminal organisation, with me so far?" she said bluntly.

Gary nodded slowly, not wanting to provoke this mad girl until something clicked in his head.

"Hey I've heard of you lot. There was a fight between some rogue mutants or something and Team Magma, was tha-," Gary was cut off before he could finish.

Angel had tackled Gary to the ground and was slowly choking him with one hand while the other had an Ice Ball forming near his face. Ash shouted out in surprise and ran over, trying to pull Angel off his friend however Angel was too angry and strong to be affected. Jake sighed and grabbed Gary's arm, teleporting him from out of Angel's iron grip. Angel took two long seconds to realize that she was now clutching air and burst to her feet, the Ice Ball in her hand shattering loudly and falling to the ground in shards.

"Jake!!!" Angel yelled angrily, her red eyes blazing furiously.

"He doesn't know enough about us to know what we're doing. We need to show him Angel," Jake replied from behind her with a shivering Gary in his hold.

Angel let cry at how unfair life was but nodded to Jake and pulled her coat off, her wings spreading out fully to their 7-foot span. Gary's eyes widened, or really his one working eye, in surprise and he yelped. He jumped back and fell down, trying to get away from Angel in fear. May looked at him sadly and walked over to comfort him.

"It's okay Gary, she won't hurt you… unless you hurt her feelings," she said softly.

Gary nodded, never taking his eye off Angel and stood again, and then he began dusting himself down. Angel scowled evilly at Gary but sniffed quietly and turned away from him, walking to a fallen tree and sitting down on its trunk. Jake watched her go and decided that she needed some space for a while so left her alone. Meanwhile Gary was talking to Ash about the A-Ball he had recently released them from. He was amazed that Ash could do that to a pokeball, considering the boy wasn't the sharpest Scyther in the woods when they last met. May was also curious as to how Ash had gotten so intelligent and decided to voice her curiosity.

"Ash… I know this sounds mean but, how did you get so smart all of a sudden?" she asked suspiciously.

"Ah well I was hoping you wouldn't ask May. It brings back a painful memory…" Ash began nostalgically.

0o0o0o0o0o0

_Ash Ketchum, pride of Pallet Town and soon to be seven years old, was walking up the beaten dirt track to Prof Oak's laboratory. In his hands he held an invitation to a birthday party, addressed to a Gary Oak. Ash fingered to hand-made letter nervously and remembered that he had kept his crayons with him. 'I wonder if Gary will like my card…' Ash thought to himself. As he reached the gate he looked up the stone steps to the front door of the lab. In the garden Gary's sister, Daisy, was watering the flowers happily, a straw sunhat perched on her head. She seemed to sense something and looked up at Ash._

"_Oh hello Ash! Gary has gone with Granddad to the bakery for some scones. They'll be home shortly, if you want to wait," she said sweetly._

"_No thank you Daisy. I just came to give something to Gary," Ash said, walking over to the young lady._

_He handed the card to Daisy, thanked her for her time, and began walking home; slightly disappointed that Gary wasn't in. Unfortunately he wasn't concentrating and suddenly tripped on a large rock, making go sprawling to the ground. A sharp pain shot up his nose and Ash's eyes filled with tears. He gingerly picked himself off the ground and examined his hands. He had scratched them up pretty good and his head was throbbing like mad. Just as Ash was about to go home again he noticed something… he'd lost one of his crayons._

_Flashback to the present!!_

0o0o0o0o0o0

May and Gary held their breath for as long as they could but eventually they both fell victim to uncontrollable laughter.

"A-Ash had a c-crayon in his brain!" she yelled hysterically before she began laughing once more.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, no one could've gotten as dumb as you were without brain damage!" Gary wheezed hysterically.

Ash blinked and inspected his fingernails calmly as he waited for his friends to stop laughing and chill out. Sad to be said, it was taking longer than it should have as whenever Gary and May looked like they had managed to calm themselves they simply erupted in a fresh cry of hysteria. The others began staring at the pair, wondering what them gotten them so cheerful all of a sudden. Over at the log Angel was glaring at Gary, fuming at his calling her a mutant. Angel's wings shuddered slightly in anger and she eyed them herself, thinking about he had said. Maybe she was a mutant; after all she wasn't exactly human. _'Could he have been right? Why do I feel so disheartened all of a sudden? Grrr, I hate that bastard!!!' _she thought unhappily.

"It's because you're taking him too seriously," Mizu replied, sitting next to her.

"Hey Mizu… Why are you so serene all the time?" Angel asked suddenly.

"I suppose it's the Gardevoir in me. Did you know they're great dancers?" Mizu replied.

Angel shook her and fell silent once more; contemplating something Mizu didn't have the heart to find out about. The pink haired girl simply put one of her arms around Angel's shoulders and leaned her head against hers, supporting her physically and emotionally. Nearby the other six were finding something to do with themselves, Ash was disassembling the A-Ball and grinding the components into the ground with one of his trainers, muttering angrily to himself. May was talking to Gary, taking care not to look at his face much as she was still nervous about his blind eye. Amazingly as well, Rebekah was doing tiger-claw push ups with Jimmy sitting on her back. Mizu blinked and her eyes sharpened like a cat's towards the fiery blonde teen. Suddenly she could see into Rebekah and noticed that something was happening to her left arm's muscles. Mizu sat up straighter as suddenly a tendon near the crook of her elbow, which was already strained past breaking point, ripped itself in two. Rebekah cried out in agony as her arm gave a small spasm and crumpled, causing her to fall and knock Jimmy off her. Mizu got to her feet immediately and rushed over to her, panicking. Angel, Jake and May followed while Gary hung back, unsure of what to do. Rebekah rocked on her back clutching her arm, still screaming in pain.

"What in the hell just happened?!" Jimmy cried.

"A tendon in her arm ripped. She puts too much strain on her muscles, they can't cope!" Mizu explained quickly, rolling up Rebekah's sleeve.

On her forearm a large red bruise had formed but it was really blood from the injury as it internally bled. Jake knelt beside it and looked at it with his great visionary skills, wincing at the damage. This was beyond something he could fix with inexperienced healing abilities. Jake may have the ability to do anything that anyone else could but only if he had the experience, therefore no medical knowledge equalled no magic healing.

"I can't fix this. She needs a hospital!" he declared.

"Wait! I have something," Gary exclaimed. "People have tried to fix my eye but these didn't work, so I kept some."

In his outstretched hand Gary held some opaque green pills.

"These bio-pills can help things to heal at much greater speeds than normal. They could help fix her arm," he explained.

Angel frowned in thought before nodding. She took a pill and put it in Rebekah's still shouting mouth. Before Rebekah had a chance to choke on it, Jimmy closed her mouth forcefully and gently rubbed her throat, causing her to automatically swallow. Everyone held their breath as they waited for some sign of it working. After a minute or so, Rebekah relaxed and settled on the ground, unconscious. Jimmy, his hands shaking, sat next to her and sighed in relief as his heart hammered in his chest.

"Thank God…" Angel whispered.

Mizu stared over the scene and looked at Gary, who was looking at Rebekah on the ground, her breathing returning to normal. Slightly behind him May was propped against a tree, fast asleep. Ash was in a similar state however he was…… Mizu blinked in surprise and rubbed her eyes. Ash was asleep standing up…

"Oh I love this!" Gary exclaimed suddenly.

Every conscious person turned to the optically challenged teen and watched him push Ash to the ground. Ash, of course, fell without resistance and lay sprawled on the grass, still snoring. Gary sniggered and pulled Ash to his feet again, where Ash amazingly remained balanced, sleeping still. Gary sniggered to himself and pushed Ash over once more, however this time there were sound affects. Gary opened his mouth and Mizu watched as he breathed in deeply, his lungs taking in an alarming amount of air for their size. _'He must spend a lot of time shouting,' _she thought vaguely.

"TIMBER!!!!!!" Gary yelled as Ash toppled.

May jumped awake at the sound, just in time to see Ash hit the dirt again without protest and without waking up. Angel hugged her chest, attempting to control the sudden, violent urge to laugh however it was proving difficult for her, as snorts and choking sounds kept issuing from her mouth in spasms and coughs. Mizu, still sitting next to her with her hands clasped neatly on her lap, merely smiled sweetly and watched Gary as he did yet another encore performance. _'Hmmm… there's something about this person. He is but flesh and faith… but has his mind concluded,' _she thought to herself. Mizu suddenly felt a pair of eyes on her and noticed that Jake was staring at her from the other side of the road. She then remembered that Jake had alternating Physic abilities thanks to his cell-altering powers. _'I guess I need to be careful about what I think…'_ she thought mindfully, knowing Jake could hear her.

"Guys!" Angel called, grabbing everyone's attention apart from Ash and Rebekah. "Once those two have woken up and are fit for travel we need to be going."

"What about Gary here? We can't leave him here with knowledge about what we're doing. I don't think the authorities would like knowing that lethal children are walking the countryside…" Jimmy asked.

Angel blinked, having not considered this factor. She glanced at Mizu, who nodded very slightly and then at Jake who blinked once. Both of them were in agreement but they knew that it was ultimately on her to decide. However Angel was tired now and she had had enough of decided others fates and putting them at risk. There were six people conscious and if Gary didn't butt in then there were five people to vote, which was perfect.

"Okay we vote. Gary stays, yay or nay?" Angel declared.

Unanimously there was the chorus of yays and nays. Angel listening carefully heard 3 yays and 2 nays.

"Well I'm sorry to put conflict on this decision but I say no," Angel decided.

The others blinked. Gary had said yes but now it was a tie of three vs three. How would they decide if he stayed or not? Surely Angel could think of another way?

"He stays…."

Angel turned her head and closed her eyes, a smile touching at the corner of her mouth. She knew what this meant... Jake and the others turned too and saw Ash, leaning on a tree to stand, with a large grin plastered on his face. He groaned as his back throbbed from hitting the ground seven times but bore with it and slowly walked the few steps into the group's centre. Gay's eye widened as Ash leaned onto his shoulder for slight support and shook his head in disbelief. _'That Ash… he's so much more different from the loser I remember. And where did he find all these cute girls?_ Gary thought, his eyes straying to the pink haired one at his left. Mizu's amethyst eyes widened a fraction and a blush crept onto her face when she heard Gary's thought, but she hid the blush and just smiled serenely behind the group. However her eyes kept straying back to the newcomer and his whitened, bleached eye as if he was an optical magnet. Mizu mentally frowned and tore her eyes from him again and listened as Angel began speaking again.

"Alrighty then, Gary stays…" she said finally.

A small cheer went up and Gary smirked to himself… until a fist came out of nowhere in front of him, driving itself into his chest with a great force. Gary involuntarily coughed as he hit the floor, rolling across the grass before stopping near a large rock. Angel grinned wickedly to herself and stood over Gary menacingly, her body blocking out the sun. The rest of the group simultaneously gasped, and Mizu let out a cry of surprise. Jake was the first to regain his voice after the start they all received from the sudden action.

"Angel what in fuck's name do you think you're doing!?!" he yelled, ignoring the fact that he'd just swore.

"Testing him. In real life there are no nice people, no little competitions. Gary must be ready to defend his life by himself without his pokemon and if he can't… then he'll be killed," Angel replied, a sinister grin etched on her face.

Mizu blinked but her psychic abilities told her that Angel didn't really want to harm Gary. She was just trying to teach him a valuable lesson in defence. Gary coughed and leant back on a hand from the ground, his breathing ragged and painful. Angel sniggered and stood over him like a vulture, circling its prey.

"What's the matter? Can't get up? Heh, figures… loser," she said sarcastically.

Gary's eyes widened slightly but Angel didn't notice. She was too busy hitting the ground hard as Gary burst upwards, his fist connecting with the bottom of her jaw and sending her to the dirt. Mizu gasped at the strength Gary just showed, his eyes nearly glowing with rage. Angel rubbed her jaw and rotated it, a cracking sound emanating from her mouth, before it settled back into place and she stood. Gary smirked and beckoned Angel with a hand, the other behind his back. Angel glowered and charged forwards, her fists ready to break him in two. Just as she came to within a metre from Gary he suddenly leapt forward, one of his arms out straight, and slammed his arm into Angel's throat driving downwards to the ground again. Angel's charge was negated and she was once again floored by the brunette, who was breathing rather heavily himself.

"Whoa… he decked her," Jimmy stated in disbelief.

Mizu was amazed as well. She had never seen any one normal person move so fast. Gary must've been an athlete or something because he was very quick on his feet, though not so strong physically. However his luck ran out… Angel got up again, a bruise swelling on her neck. However she didn't seem bothered as she was drilling holes into Gary's eyes with her own. Gary stood his ground, not backing away from the imposing teenager. Angel noticed this and relaxed suddenly, a smile forming on her face.

"Humph. What's the matter? You aren't hurt are you? Scaredy Delcatty," Gary taunted.

"Not at all. I just think that you are good enough," Angel replied happily. "You didn't back down and you didn't run away. You pass."

Gary blinked, his shoulders slumping down again. Ash cheered from behind them and gave a high-five to May, who had been watching the fight in shock and fear. May returned the gesture happily, glad Angel didn't really try and hurt her new friend. If Angel had been serious, Gary wouldn't have stood a chance. Angel herself smiled slightly, knowing she had made the right decision to try and show him what it was really like outside of a friendly competition. The real world was cruel and harsh, only the best survived for long…

0o0o0o0o0o0

'_See them fighting. They enjoy their destruction, seeing their enemies fall before them. Humans are filled with an aggressive instinct that they must follow. There is no other way…'_

Jake froze. He knew that voice in his head… His tattered grey scarf vibrated around his neck and suddenly tightened. Jake was taken by surprise and struggled to get it off, his actions drawing the attentions of his comrades. Angel rushed over in worry, gripping the scarf tightly and pulling. What she didn't expect was for it to grip her hands back. Angel's eyes widened in shock and fear as a pair of hands, gripping her wrists, appeared at the end of the scarf she was currently holding. Then it began to change… first the next section became two arms and a torso soon followed. Afterwards a full body had appeared from the scarf, which was still changing. Finally it let go of Jake's neck and the rest of the garment morphed into a head on the shoulders of the body that had appeared. Angel screamed as a hand reached up and closed around her throat, silencing her as her wind pipe got blocked. Jake stood there grinning maliciously as he squeezed the oxygen from Angel's lungs. A tear formed in one of Angel's eyes and trickled down her cheek, freezing and shattering without a sound.

"GET OFF HER!!!"

Jake was tackled to the side by a grey and brown blur and fell to the ground a few feet away. Standing over him was… Jake! Angel blinked, trembling still from the horror that had gripped her heart when Jake was strangling her. Mizu rushed over and pulled her up, dragging her away from the now fighting twins. Jake looked at the Jake that had been choking his love and spat at the impostor's feet. The other Jake simply sniggered to himself, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

"So we finally meet, Drake!" he growled.

"It's actually Dark Jake, however I'm fine with Drake. But yes Jake it has been too long… I have finally broken free of the prison you created for me that night long ago, the night when you returned to Angel after conquering your inner demon. However, I'm not looking so conquered am I?" the other Jake, now known as Drake said, his voice resonating as if it was being put through a distorter.

Jake stood to his full height of 5" 7' and glared at Drake as he got up. Jake's grey scarf was gone from his neck as it became apparent that Drake had been the scarf. Both people looked almost identical apart from that Drake's clothes were dirty and tattered, while Jake's were undamaged and clean. However there was nothing else to tell them apart except from their eyes. Jake's had dark grey irises that looked cold to start with but they contained warmth from a person of a good heart. However Drake's eyes had no such features. No pupil or iris to speak of, just pure whiteness. In Drake's hand was a long sword made of a strange black metal which had not been in his hand earlier. Jake grimaced but raised both his hands, a silver sword being made from extra cells he was producing. Both boys stood apart, facing each other as they prepared for a fight.

"What's going on?" Angel asked, her voice shaking.

"I dunno. But I'm scared too," Mizu replied in a whisper, holding Angel to her for support.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Rebekah opened her eyes to see the blade of a black sword falling towards her face. She opened her mouth to scream but it was too late for that. A loud clang resonated from the somewhere on the route that Angel's Team was on and Rebekah opened her clenched eyes to see Jake blocking the sword with one of his own. Rebekah's eyes darted to the owner of the attacking weapon and she blanched. It was another Jake! _'Okkkkkaaaaayyy, time to run…' _she thought as she jumped to her feet.

A few metres in front of her Jake parried a vicious swing from Drake with his sword of silver. Drake simply swung again and again, each time with building intent to kill. Jake however was focusing solely on protecting his friends from the demon that had been released. _'How did he get out? That Pokerus virus couldn't affect me directly so another soul of pure malice and corruption was created, taking over me for a time… But I beat him. How did he escape his prison?' _Jake thought to himself.

"Now's not the time for daydreaming!" Drake screamed psychotically.

Jake blinked and felt something akin to being punched in the gut with a piece of paper. He slowly looked down and saw Drake's blood covered hands, gripping his black sword that was imbedded in his own stomach. Drake's hands were covered in blood… his blood! Jake screamed in agony as Drake ripped the blade slowly out of him and kicked the fallen Jake over on the ground. Angel gasped loudly and tears began falling from her eyes. Drake heard the noise and turned to her, his malevolent grin as large as ever. However when he saw Angel kneeling on the ground, her eyes soaking with cold water, her hands wrapped around her own shoulders he hesitated. This was when the other struck…

Jake rose from the ground like a monster from the sea and whistled loudly. Drake turned and felt a fist batter itself into his face, causing it to fold in on itself slightly. Drake was thrown back several metres, rolling on the ground clutching his now shattered nose and jaw. Jake grinned and his sword vanished, melting into his body again. Drake's sword had vanished as well, showing that the blow had weakened him badly. Angel opened her now tear stained eyes and spotted Jake standing over the other, his foot on Drake's chest to stop him moving.

"Jake! You did it!" she cried, tears of happiness now leaking from her eyes.

Jake turned and gave her a thumbs-up, his eyes closing briefly.

"Big mistake…" Drake whispered.

He suddenly grabbed Jake's ankle that was on top of him and pushed hard. Jake's feet flew backwards and he began to fall forward, only to have both of Drake's feet kick him into the air. Jake's still wounded stomach seared with unbelievable pain from the blow, however Jake's willpower managed to keep him conscious long enough to hold his hands together and start collecting energy from the sun high above in space. The spectrums of light energy all combined into a great ball of white, crackling energy between Jake's cupped hands. Jake felt the skin on his palms burning as the energy built up and he swung his arms dramatically over his head, bringing down the Solar Beam attack to bear on Drake. The darker copy of Jake smirked and lowered one of his hands. Just as the fast moving attack reached half a metre from him he batted it aside with the back of his hand, deflecting the beam and sending it right at Gary who had no time to get out of the way.

"Ahhhhhh!!!" he screamed in terror, knowing he wouldn't survive.

Gary shielded his clenched eyes and waited for the inevitable and overwhelming attack to engulf and destroy him. After five seconds he realized that he wasn't dead yet and decided to look. Directly in front of him was a certain person laying face first on the ground. Gary needn't have turned the person over as the pink hair revealed to him who it was instantly. Mizu had taken the attack for him, sacrificing herself as a result. Gary stuttered and fell to his knees beside the fallen psychic, his hands reaching over and turning her around. Mizu's eyes were still open however they were unfocused and glazed, her mouth slightly open in mid-speech. In the centre of her chest was a black, smouldering hole where the Solar Beam had burnt into her. However it was so scorched that it was too black to tell how much damage had been done. A single tear gathered in Gary's right eye and fell from his eye onto Mizu's still face.

"Heh, show's over…" Drake said uncaring. "Now back to y-."

Drake stopped what he was saying as something happened that normally didn't. Mizu's body was moving… it moved grotesquely as though there was a rather bad puppeteer pulling at her strings to make her stand. Her head lolled backwards and refused to move for some reason. Drake, intrigued, moved to the front of Mizu's body and tried to figure out how it was moving. He leaned in closer and saw her chest slowly moving in and out, indicating something that instilled something he had not ever felt before… fear, that Mizu was still alive.

"No way…"

"Way…"

Mizu snapped her head forward and smashed her forehead into Drake's already smashed face. Drake was thrown back by the surprising intensity of the blow and rolled over and over on himself before he stopped, clutching his face and screaming in pain, though it was muffled by the hands he was holding in front of his mouth. The pain proved too much for the copycat Jake and he vanished in a puff of smoke with the words "I'll be back" hanging in the air. Gary stared in amazement as Mizu slowly turned around to him her smile already back on her face. Jake and the others were stumped completely on how she had just done that, considering everyone was sure she had died. Gary glanced at her chest and saw that, through the hold in her top the skin had been burnt away completely, leaving something shiny in its place.

"Solid steel," Mizu commented, rapping on the metal visible on her chest.

Gary's mind, though smart and sharp as it was, couldn't begin to know how to react to this revelation. _'You're on your own mate,'_ his mind said as it flew from his head. Gary simply gazed at the pink haired girl, drool slowly collecting at the corner of his open mouth. Mizu laughed and clutched her chest in pain as a result… she may have survived but her body needed to shut down so it could recover from its ordeal. Mizu leaned forward and kissed Gary gently on the cheek, before falling forwards into his instinctive arms. Gary held Mizu gently to him, her head resting on his chest as she snored quietly. Gary looked up slowly, still not too sure of what was happening and his mouth slowly curved into a smile.

"Okay then. Where're we going?"

* * *

**Jesus H. Christ I really didn't expect it to take this long to do one chapter. However its close to the Christmas holidays so be sure to check out for more updates in the very near future. If you like, review and tell me what you thought. I like people's input and with comments on how it was liked/disliked I'll mould the story to better fit what everyone likes. But for now I'd better get to bed for tomorrow… Physics test I haven't revised for, oh well. Later peeps!**


	25. Chapter 25: World Motion, For Devotion!

**Dark Angel**

**As promised here is the next chapter for you lot. I was expecting more reviews, as without them I don't know whether or not you like them and it makes me unable to decide what to write next. But anyway here's the next chapter for the enjoyment of the world and beyond. Last time on Dark Angel: Angel and friends managed to escape from the A-Ball thanks to the intervention of Gary Oak, who has been disfigured in a conflict with his resurrected Aerodactyl. The next player in the ever widening ball field is the anti-hero alter-ego of Jake, Dark Jake who is called Drake or Evil Bastard (lol). Also could there be something growing between Gary and Mizu? Find out now! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!**

**Angel: O…k… 0.0; Sorry for the long wait fans, it's been a long time hasn't it?**

**Jake: Yeah, even I was beginning to die of old age!**

**Angel: Jake, you're immortal…**

**Jake:... Oh yeah**

**Angel: . **

**May: Anyways, let's get on with the chapter already!**

**Mizu: Yes… let's…**

**Jimmy: She's so calm and serene, it's unreal!**

**Rebekah: What about me?**

**Jimmy: You're red hott, fiery, wild and untameable… completely different**

**Ash: Everyone's cool, apart from Rebekah (laughs) anyway we really need to get underway.**

**Everyone: Aye-aye Captain Slog.**

**Ash: Who is Captain Slog? He must have a big family… there's First Officer Slog, Chief Medical Officer Slog, Admiral Slog… just who are these people and why are they mentioned at the beginning of every Star Trek episode?**

**Rest: (sweatdrop)**

**Chapter 25: World in Motion, Unwavering Devotion**

Gary shook his head in disbelief.

He'd known that this group of people were probably nuts but he hadn't expected them to be completely insane. He looked up at Ash who was sitting on a log nearby with May's head resting on his shoulder as she sat next to him, while he spoke with her. Gary couldn't make out what they were saying but he wasn't too particularly interested at this moment. He turned back to the girl known as Angel, who was obviously the leader, the way the others turned to her and the way her shoulders were always slouched as if there was a large weight on them. The blonde teen that had finally woken up during Jake and Drake's fight was waiting impatiently for something to happen, her arms folded across her chest and her foot tapping on the ground. Gary sighed and gently lowered Mizu to the ground, where she continued to sleep, blissfully unaware of the tense atmosphere around her.

"Ok… Will we be leaving as soon as everyone's better?" Gary asked, noticing Jake's wincing and looking at the obvious damage on Mizu.

He blinked and looked closer. Angel felt a vein pop in her forehead at the action. How dare Gary get saved by Mizu, only to have her pass out and now he just begins to stare at her chest shamelessly! Angel began walking over to the omni-optic boy, to beat some manners into him but she hesitated when he motioned for her to come closer, his eyes never leaving Mizu. Angel felt uneasy now but went closer and followed Gary's hand as he pointed. Angel's eyes widened slightly but she made no outward sign of surprise. Barely visible she could she Mizu's skin knitting itself together and slowly close the hole over the steel plate that protected her ribcage from damage. Angel gasped in shock and awe, Mizu's healing powers were incredible! It only took 10 minutes for the damage on Mizu's chest to heal completely, however because it had healed over the hole in her shirt was now exposing her bare breasts to those who could see her from their vantage points. Gary, blushing heavily, took off his long white lab coat and fastened it up over Mizu to give her some decency, and to stop her getting cold, as it was still in winter. Just as Gary was about to get back up from kneeling down Mizu's hand reached up and took his hand in its grip.

"Can you help me get up?" she asked, her eyes still closed.

Gary sweatdropped but complied with her request and helped the pink haired girl to her feet. Mizu swayed slightly but got her balance back after a second or two. Gary kept blushing, the recent memory of seeing her bare chest still on his mind. Mizu glanced at him and her cheeks redden slightly but she said nothing and walked over to Angel, who was standing back slightly, going over what had just transpired in her head. First there was Ash's stupid A-Ball problem, and then Jake's mad half breaks free, now she learns that Mizu is invincible. '_Or so I hope…'_ Angel thought.

"Ok people were ready, move out!" she called finally.

All eight teens turned on the spot and began walking down the path that led to where Angel hoped was a Team Rocket outpost, however unknown to them, it also led to…. Their downfall.

0o0o0o0o0o0

"Are we there yet?" Gary whined for the sixth time.

"Yes," Jake replied smoothly.

"Really?" Gary asked, his interest returning.

"NO!!!" Jake roared back, causing Gary to shrink back in fear.

Ash sniggered behind his hand while May gave Jake a nervous glance. She remembered having to tranquilize him once before and she'd prefer not to do it again. Rebekah's injury to her arm was now almost completely healed thanks to Gary's strange pill so she was walking comfortably alongside Jimmy, who was holding her hand in his, giving it reassuring squeezes now and again. Everyone was tense and some weren't really sure of what was going to happen in the next few hours, but they were sure it couldn't be good.

"May you had a gun didn't you?" Angel suddenly asked.

"Umm… yeah, my dad wanted me to have some protection on my journey," she replied nervously.

"Will you please give it to me for a second? And any live ammo you have with it," Angel asked again.

May didn't reply in words but reached for a fanny pack and took it off. She turned it around so that everyone could see the back of it and pulled a seemingly invisible zipper. She reached inside and pulled out the biggest handgun anyone had ever seen. It was a platinum-red combo colour with a 40cm long barrel and extra wide chamber, and looked as deadly as anything they'd ever seen before. Now they knew why they mistook it for a small rifle the last time they saw it... well everyone but Mizu and Gary that is. The slide which acted as the reloading mechanism was blood red along with the trigger guard and the trigger itself, while the stock, handgrip and the rest of the barrel was a silvery colour. Carved onto the right hand side of the gun were the words "Widow-Maker" in a beautiful calligraphy style. May lifted the gun with one hand and tossed it easily to Angel, who nearly fell over when the 14kg handgun hit her in the chest. After a quick recovery Angel checked the magazine and found a single bullet inside.

"One shot?" she asked, slightly disappointed.

"Yes, don't waste it whatever you do!" May warned her.

Angel looked over the gun critically. It seemed to be custom-made for its looks but she had no idea at all of why it was so god damn big! _'Any normal person would have their hand bones shattered by firing this thing, what the hell is May thinking having this thing?' _she thought. Mizu walked over to Angel from the back of the group and whispered in her ear, pointing up at one of the distant cliffs, about 300 metres away. Angel grinned and, using her index finger, made a ring of ice in the air, about half a metre in diameter. Once made, she threw it straight up like a Frisbee and raised the Widow-Maker. As soon as the ice ring began to descend Angel pulled the trigger… and nothing happened. Angel was about to check the gun when it suddenly fired, her loose hand punched into her stomach from recoil. The shot flew out at around Mach 2, going right through the bull's-eye of the Ice Frisbee and in about just under half of a second, blew a hole in one of the cliffs ahead about ten metres wide. Everyone in the group was stunned when the cliff suddenly started to dilate, as if underwater. From the effect a building, built onto the cliff side, could be seen until the dilating effect vanished, leaving the black building with a large red R on the side, visible to the world.

"Whoa…" was all that was said.

Angel's eyes narrowed. _'Team Rocket… and from what I hear "dearest father" is in there. I'm going to enjoy tearing that bastard a new h-,' _she thought.

_**Do not be so presumptuous. Plan this carefully…**_

'_Alright Mizu… Let's think about this.'_

With that thought Angel sat heavily onto the dirt path and crossed her legs, her eyes closed in thought. Mizu gave her a soulful glance, as Mizu usually did for everyone and sat with her legs crossed as well. However Mizu ended up floating in midair as her psychic powers made her levitate. Jake, the ever wise one, sat down like the sisters and the others followed suit. Most were silent until Ash suddenly said,

"What the hell was in that bullet May?"

May blushed suddenly, her ability of speech seemingly failing her. Everyone, aside Angel Mizu and Jake, glared at May for an answer and May sweatdropped at the looks they were giving her. Ask smirked and knew that she would crack under the pressure in a few seconds. As he predicted May suddenly lowered her head and began twiddling with her index fingers.

"D-Dad… he made sure that… i-if someone attacked me, they wouldn't be able to again… I-I suppose," she mumbled, her voice suddenly breaking.

"So he armed you with a 15mm high-calibre explosive round that could punch a hole in the ozone layer itself? Maybe a bit too protective if you ask me… plus that gun is FUCKING HUGE!!! It must weigh about 15 kilos!" Gary exclaimed. "Well just so you know I'm sure that got their attention."

Angel wasted no more time and began taking her trench coat off, her wings trembling in anticipation. Once off she spread them wide, ice sparkling off and making the air around them glitter. Mizu winced as, with a tearing sound and the sound of metal began scraped against metal, her metallic wings burst from her back. Gary walked to Mizu and took hold of her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"Thanks," Mizu said quietly.

"For what? I need you to carry me up there!" Gary declared.

Mizu sweatdropped but a sly wink from Gary made her blush as she too began to fly. On the ground Ash positioned himself on Pidgeot and May got onto Latias once those two were summoned. Rebekah unfortunately didn't really have a flying pokemon… she glanced longingly at the retreating Angel and Mizu. How she wished for wings like those… reacting to her thoughts her ring began unknowingly glowing a bright red, attracting her attention. From within it, in the flames an image of a pair of burning wings became visible and Rebekah began to feel lighter. A crackling sound like a fire emanated from behind her as two large flaming wings formed from nothing on her back. Rebekah was awestruck. She concentrated on going up and as if on command, her 'wings' began flapping, a shower of embers falling with every beat. Grinning she grabbed a nearby Jimmy's hands and shot into the air, her wings easily capable of lifting them both. Jake smirked and turned into a Salamence, roaring loudly he shot after the retreating group. After that the whole group was airborne and heading towards the ominous black building, nerves shaking as they readied themselves to destroy it, ridding the world of another Rocket Hideout. Hopefully they wouldn't have to kill anyone, even Angel had a heart when it came to other people; no matter how cruel or evil they may be.

"Hey guys! Do you hear that!?" Ash yelled from the back of the group.

"Hey yeah! I hear it too!" Rebekah called.

A whirring sound began to grow steadily louder as the group came closer to the cliff side and they dived to either side as two black helicopters with red R's on their sides shot over the top of the cliff, chain guns on the underside firing bullets everywhere. Angel corkscrewed through the air, her hands becoming charged with Elemental Energy. Mizu used her concentration to form a psychic barrier to protect Gary from the hail of bullets and ignored the rounds as they flattened themselves on her strong armoured wings. Jake was almost caught by a rocket suddenly being fired at him from behind. _'These guys aren't playing around, I can't take explosions without serious damage!' _he thought unhappily as he morphed his left arm into a bazooka-like object. He spun in midair to face the chopper behind him and launched some type of grenade at it. The pilot pulled sharply on the cyclic and collective (the names of the two controlling joysticks on a helicopter's control panel) to make the helicopter do a banking turn downwards. However Jake's aim was true and the grenade exploded over the helicopter's rotor, covering it in a sticky pink fluid. The helicopter's engine sputtered and failed, the rotor stopped and it fell from the air, hitting the ground with a heavy crash. The pilot slowly clambered out and pulled a handgun from his shirt, firing up at the group. Ash gasped in pain as a bullet grazed his shoulder, slightly cutting him but not deep enough to be serious.

"Pidgeot, we need height!" Ash said to his pokemon.

Pidgeot nodded and banked upwards at an unhealthily steep angle. May, the newest passenger, who had been forced to jump from Latias' back and return her to her pokeball before reaching towards Pidgeot as it passed, nearly missing but Ash managed to spot her and grab her hand as he passed, letting her climb on behind him, held Ash's waist tightly so as not to fall off as Ash held onto Pidgeot as best he could. Soon they were too high for the pilot to reach them and could see over the cliff's top. It was a large plateau, featuring what appeared to be three old towers. They reached about three hundred metres each and resembled the Battle Towers in Johto and Hoenn. However these three were arranged in a triangular pattern and had large metal walkways connecting each of them to the other two.

"Whoa, I read about this… it's the old Hoenn Space Towers. Kind of like the Space Center but they could launch rockets instead of shuttles from here too, look there's the launch pad!" May exclaimed.

Ash was impressed with May's knowledge of the area, but it was to be expected since she lived in this region for most of her life. Down below the battle was progressing with increasing intensity. Rebekah swooped down at incredible speeds towards the pilot as Jimmy prepared himself to let go of her hands. His cap suddenly blew off his head and flew into the air, making him cry out in surprise. He watched as it was blown away in despair but a hand reached out and grabbed it. Jimmy gave Gary a grateful smile before turning back to the pilot of the downed helicopter, who was reloading his pistol. Rebekah dived steeply down and went into a small loop, spinning around on a dime a few times before she let Jimmy go, and centrifugal force drove him towards the pilot at a fast speed. Jimmy visualized the move he was planning to execute, hoping it would help him perform it better. He hit the ground at a shallow angle and rolled with it, climbing to his feet and running faster than it was possible for him to under normal circumstances. He jumped forwards once and when his feet touched the ground he jumped again into a large forward flip, his hands grabbing onto the pilots ears as he whizzed over the man's head. Jimmy continued forward and landed on his feet, his arms pulling the pilot along with him and throwing the poor man over his head, by his ears. The man crashed to the ground with a sickening crack, his leg and arm broken.

Above Jimmy and Rebekah's head Angel was being relentlessly pursued by the second helicopter. No matter how many times she dodged to the side or flew around it, it would either follow her or simply turn on the spot to find her again. Angel put on more speed, her wings needing to flap relentlessly to keep her going. She was becoming aggravated; a single machine was slowing her down. Angel stopped suddenly and formed a sphere of swirling blue energy in her right hand. It was remarkably cold and it made a noise like a thousand Christmas bells... it was the pure energy that Ice-type pokemon used to perform their icy moves such as Ice Beam and Blizzard. She turned and faced the black helicopter, the pilot inside it grinning stupidly. Angel shot forward, her energized hand held in front of her. The helicopter launched a rocket right at her and Angel panicked slightly, however Jake fell from the sky in front of it and spun around once, his left foot smacking into it's side and deflecting it easily. Angel then had a clear shot and began spinning like a top, going faster and faster, becoming a white and blue tornado in midair. She shot forward even faster and punched straight through the helicopter, from front to back, tearing a gaping hole in either end. The pilot looked behind her in panic and saw a large flash before an explosion consumed her senses. The pilot closed her eyes and waited for death… however all she heard was wind rushing past her ears and she opened her eyes. She was in the arms of Jake as he carried her to safety and dumped her on a nearby pine tree. The pilot shouted at him crazily.

"Hey you punk get me off of here... I hate bugs!" She called after him, while eyeing a particularly large Spinarak.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Ash and May landed next to the other six on the roof of the building in high spirits. They had skydived down and landed on Pidgeot before they reached the roof, the pokemon setting them down gently.

_Mini-flashback_

"_Hey May, when we land, we're gonna feel invincible." Ash said to his friend._

_May grinned and swan-dived off Pidgeot's back._

"_I am invincible!" she yelled._

_End Mini-flashback_

Needless to say they were experiencing a major high from their BASE jump to the building. Adrenaline pumped through their veins in large quantities, making the world around slow to a crawl, though in reality their perception had increased. Ash felt like he could run at 70mph like the "Six Million Poke-Dollar Man". May on the other hand was close to wetting herself with exhilaration. Never before had she done something so thoughtlessly reckless and exciting, and she liked it… she liked it a lot. Angel and the other waited for them to calm down before turning to the single door on the roof, leading down a stairwell into the interior.

"Jake, you have point." Angel said sharply, sounding like a battlefield commander.

Jake gave her a smirk.

"Aye-aye Commander," he replied cheekily.

He walked over to the door and reached for the handle on it. There was a crackle and the other seven teens had to shield their eyes as a flash like a solar flare almost burned their retinas. The sound of electricity running at an insanely high voltage went off and the smell of burning rubber was thick in the air as a scream of pain invaded the group's ears. When the chaos finally settled Angel was afraid to look… what had happened? Mizu was the first to open her eyes and she blinked in surprise. Slowly the others looked as well. Jake was standing next to an open door, clutching his right hand. He looked fine… well, almost.

"Ouch… that hurt," he said, cradling his burnt hand.

"Jake!" Angel cried, running over to him.

Jake turned and instinctively opened his arms, catching Angel as she burrowed herself in his chest, close to tears of joy that he was alright. Words were not required for Jake to understand what Angel was feeling at the moment. _'I'm fine Angel. I appreciate your concern… wait, something's wrong…'_ Jake looked at his burnt hand and nearly yelled again, but this time in surprise. His hand looked like it was melting! His normally pink fluid form was dripping off his liquefying skin, black and thick. Angel noticed this and gasped in shock.

"Oh my god… Jake you're melting!" she screamed.

"Uh-oh…" Gary mumbled.

"That can't be good for anyone," Rebekah commented.

"Well fuck this shit," Jake complained as his hand fell off like slop, splashing loudly against the ground. "Angel, listen to me. I can't hold myself together… that electricity was contaminated with something radioactive; you have to go on without me. It's not safe for me to stay with all of you if I'm contaminated. Go!"

Angel, tears falling freely, looked up into Jake's eyes. He looked like he was crying too but Angel saw that the "tears" were black and they faintly smelled of something fetid and rotten. Jake's face slowly melted away, just like the rest of him, until he was nothing more than a puddle of black matter, slowly bubbling on the ground. The others felt something tighten around their chests and realized that the air around them was being laced with radiation. Ash grabbed Angel and dragged her limp form through the open doorway, into the belly of the beast, as some same. Mizu closed the door and with a sharp slicing sound, her wings were withdrawn into her body. Everyone stopped to look at Angel, whose breaths were ragged and hard. She looked up with a great ferocity and said in a snarling voice:

"I'm gonna kill those mother-fuckers!"

Mizu winced as she picked up on Angel's violent thoughts and tried to suppress them but it was no good. Angel had gone of the deep end and she wasn't resurfacing any time soon. Angel walked straight past everyone and jumped over the banister, dropping down at least four stories. Ash and Gary reached the banister first and looked over the edge. Angel hit the ground hard and stood up immediately, leaving both teens amazed. Not many people got off without injuries like Angel could. _'Unless she used ice to fortify her skeleton… smart.'_ The other six basically threw themselves down the stairs to catch up before Angel got caught or something. Just as they were about to reach the bottom, feet pounding on the metal staircase, breath heavy and strained, there was a shout of:

"LET ME GO YOU BASTARD!!!"

Mizu sighed in frustration as she levitated down the last few steps. Angel was being held by a gorilla-like man, large in build and low on intelligence. He wore the standard red and black uniform of the Team Rocket grunts and was holding Angel with one beefy arm around her neck, her legs kicking in the air. Angel screamed and kicked like the devil but the brute was too big to notice. Ash, Rebekah and Jimmy wondered why Angel wasn't using her Ice powers to freeze the guy when they realized that she might be too angry to remember she had them. Mizu slapped a hand to her forehead and waved the other hand at the man as if brushing him aside. The Grunt began glowing blue and was thrown into a wall by the Psychic energies Mizu was using. The guy was knocked unconscious by the blow and his hold on Angel relaxed, releasing her. Angel got up to her feet fast and turned around, her fist raised to punch the man while he was down. She tensed her arm and tried to give the guy a good right hook when her arm suddenly stopped. She didn't need to turn around to know what was holding her back; the numbness in her arm said that an extrasensory force was holding it.

"Mizu let me go!" Angel exclaimed angrily.

"Not until you calm down…" Mizu replied quietly. "You can't be this out of focus if we are to succeed."

"I happen to be much focused! Focused on punching this guy's lights out!" Angel retorted.

"He's already unconscious. Would you rather he was dead?" Mizu asked; her voice calm and neutral.

As she said this she held her left hand up, pointing the palm of her hand at the man. Angel watched as there was a blue glow around his chest area. Mizu began to slowly close her hand into a fist and Angel realized what Mizu was doing. She was crushing the man's heart with her Psychic powers! Angel gave her a panicked glance before raising her hands up in surrender, showing that she was calm now and ready to continue. Mizu nodded and released the beefy guy's organs from her control, giving Angel a small smile as she did so. Angel sighed in relief… her sister could be very scary when she wanted to be. She straightened herself and turned to face the metal door before them. The door had a section designation on it: Section B-52. As Angel approached, the door opened automatically to reveal a laboratory of sorts. There were work tables with vials, Bunsen burners, and various utensils set around the room in a grid-iron pattern. Angel's eyes roamed to the walls where cages were built in with various pokemon trapped inside. There were some Nidoran, a Sandshrew, and even a Charmander on the wall to Angel's left. On her right there were a few Psychic types along with a couple of other pokemon. There was an Elekid, a Taillow and a Pupitar, a Drowzee, some Smoochum and a Meditite. Some were in bad condition and others were dead. Angel fought back the urge to retch on the floor at the disgusting sight before her. Rebekah stepped in after her and found the urge easier to agree with than Angel did and vomited over the shiny metal floor. As the others in the group filtered in, almost all of them made a sour look at the situation.

"Hey there little one, are you alright?" Rebekah asked the Charmander once she had sufficiently regained control of her bowels.

"Char-charmander. Mander, char-char-man-der," The pokemon muttered to her.

"Oh that's awful. Let me see if I can get you out…" Rebekah whispered.

She looked at the metal bars holding the Charmander inside. As she watched, the Charmander yawned and she spotted a shiny black collar with blinking lights around its neck. The strange thing was that she couldn't smell any burning from the Charmander's breath. The collar must've been stopping the Charmander from burning the air it breathed, which would stop it from using any of its fire attacks. Rebekah grabbed the bars of the cage and gasped when they shocked her with a powerful blast of energy. Her palms became slightly burnt and Rebekah whimpered in pain, having never been burnt before in her life. It was an unpleasant experience to be sure. She watched as her skin became stretched and shiny, her fingers going numb and difficult to move.

"Are you alright?" Mizu asked her.

"I'll be fine, but we have to release the surviving pokemon!" Rebekah replied. "They won't survive this treatment much longer."

Mizu nodded and unsheathed her claws. Her hands began bleeding as her skin was split open by the powerful knife like appendages coming from her knuckles. She raised her right hand, winked at the Charmander and slashed once across the bars, faster than most of her friends could follow. The bars seemed unaffected until small lines crossed them, leaving a visible trail where Mizu's claws had cut them. The affected bars fell out and landed on the floor, clanging loudly. Mizu grinned as the Charmander slowly crawled out, fighting to get to freedom. She too noticed the collar and immediately cut it off, being cautious not to hurt the pokemon. The Charmander blinked and suddenly stood up straight, roaring with energy, fire spewing from it's throat. Mizu ducked out of the way as the Charmander roasted all the nearby equipment on the lab tables.

"Whoah… those collars must stop a pokemon from using it's elemental abilities and also drain it's energy. It's almost like they're powered by….." Ash said before he trailed off, noticing the dead pokemon. "Oh sweet baby Lugia and the orphans…"

"What is it Ash?" Gary asked, not figuring out what his rival seemed to suddenly know.

"Those collars… they- they're powered by the pokemon. They use the pokemon's energy to stay active and it drains away at they're life until…" Ash glanced at a dead Pidgey in a cage near the door they had entered.

Gary grimaced at the sudden revelation and pulled at pokeball from his belt.

"Go Umbreon! Use Shadow Ball and break these cages!" he called as he threw it forward.

The Dark type Eeveelution appeared in a flash of white light and immediately began carrying out Gary's request, launching Shadow Balls at the cages, bursting the bars off and allowing the pokemon that were alive to slowly crawl their way out. May called forth her Blaziken to do the same, using Sky Uppercut to punch its way through the bars and pull out the pokemon. The amount of noise everyone was making was sure to alert Team Rocket as to where they were but no one cared at the moment; the only ones that mattered were the pokemon. Rebekah called for the newly freed Charmander and the pokemon ran to her side.

"Hey my friend, help me get these collars off your friends okay?" she asked politely.

The Charmander nodded in agreement and its small claws started glowing metallic silver, showing that it was powering up its Metal Claw attack. With a small touch of the attack, the collar on a Rattata fell off and hit the floor heavily. Rebekah blinked and picked up the collar, amazed at how heavy the device was. She noticed that the Charmander had a ring of dark flesh where the collar had been tight around its neck, rubbing welts into its scales… a mark of shame. Rebekah blinked back her tears and clenched her right hand into a fist, punching a wall panel as hard as she could. She vaguely remembered what it was but before she could dwell on it, there was a loud, blaring alarm. The Fire Drill…

"Alright, now we can trash this place!" Angel cheered as she began freezing over anything she could reach with her Ice Beams.

"Let's bust a nut Pikachu! Use Thunderbolt!" Ash called to his friend.

"You too Umbreon, wreck the joint!" Gary said.

Soon the surrounding area was in ruins as Angel and her friends laid waste to the base, freeing trapped pokemon at the same time. Ash and Pikachu ran on ahead into Section 32-A and noticed that there were still some Rockets in this area. Before he was seen Ash dove behind a bunch of crates situated on the walkway he was now crouching on, far above the proper floor. Slowly Ash looked up and nearly gasped in amazement. The room was _huge_! The roof of it was out of sight, somewhere above the shadows. Ash was strongly reminded of the reactor core of the Death Solrock from Star Wars. The roof could be easily as large and Ash suddenly found himself thinking of how it had remained hidden. The only place that could be this tall from underground was…. The Space Towers! From there Team Rocket could use orbital vehicles to travel anywhere on the planet and beyond! For all he knew Team Rocket had a space station in orbit.

"Ash…" a voice whispered from behind.

Ash nearly jumped out of his skin and turned quickly, putting a hand over Gary's mouth. Gary nearly protested but his eyes turned as large as soup plates as his gaze swept across the room. He nodded to himself as Ash removed his hand from Gary's mouth.

"The Space Towers… of course," Gary muttered quietly.

"We need to be careful. This part of the facility mustn't have a fire alarm because of the rocket launches. Plus this place looks important; this walkway must be a security patrol point…" Ash trailed off and blinked at his own stroke of intelligence.

Gary sighed as Ash quickly grabbed him and forced both him and himself into one of the crates, before pulling the lid over them. Gary moaned in protest but Ash ignored him, peering through the hole in the crate to the main part of this large room. Suddenly, without warning, a speaker system came to life and a voice issued forth from it.

"_Section 32-A. Begin with final stages," _the voice stated.

Instantly, the workers down below started pushing buttons and pulling levers feverishly to complete the order they had just been given. A loud whirring noise was heard and Ash watched as a large section of the opposite wall started to open up, revealing what was inside. There were footsteps behind where Ash was and he realized that his friends might be coming this way. Throwing caution to the winds, Ash opened the crate again and jumped out, landing crouched on the walkway again, staring up the barrel of May's handgun. Inside the chamber he could see a bullet staring back at him.

"Oh Ash!" May cried in surprise, pulling the gun away from him. "You scared me! Don't jump out of boxes or I might accidentally sh….oot….. you…." May slowly trailed off her current train of thought as she stared over Ash's shoulder.

"What?" Ash asked, turning around.

What was the now opened chamber where the wall had opened up, revealing a writhing green serpent, bound by rings around the length of it's body. These rings were attached by rods to the walls of the secret chamber and electricity lanced along them, black and vile.

"The contaminated energy…" Ash whispered. "Team Rocket… what have you done?"

0o0o0o0o0o0

Out on the roof a pink puddle spread across the flat surface, just in front of an open door. A lone figure walked over, looking at the puddle with disdain. As if mad, the person began speaking to the puddle.

"I'm disappointed in you. Here I was, hoping to defeat you myself but it turns out you're not all you're cracked up to be… but still, Angel's in there isn't she? I realize now that we may be two different people but I too care for her more than anything, which is weird considering I'm evil and stuff. But still we need to save her, and by 'we' I mean that you and I are going to work together," the person said slowly and clearly.

The puddle did nothing so the person walked onto it, stepping across it until this person had reached the middle. As if by magic, the puddle began to shrink, flowing up the person's body and coating them in its pink watery fluid. The person closed their eyes and a small smile graced their face as the pink fluid that now covered them sank into the person's skin and vanished, leaving not a trace. Suddenly the person screamed in pain and fell to their knees as a white glow enveloped them. A dark glow appeared beyond this white glow and the two colours slowly mixed until they reached a light grey colour. The glow faded and the person slowly stood, opening their eyes.

'_I'm back…'_

0o0o0o0o0o0

By now even Angel and Mizu had located Ash, May and Gary. Rebekah and Jimmy were not far behind. They seven of them watched in horror as black energy continually struck at the bound serpent, which roared in fury at the people below. Mizu shook and whimpered as the creature's emotions washed over her. With a shock she stood still, her eyes wide and her breath short and fast. She suddenly ran forward and jumped over the railing, screaming.

"NOOOO!!!"

"Mizu!" Gary and Angel cried.

Rebekah and Angel ran forward, jumping over the railing as well. They fell pretty far and hit the ground, Angel using her wings as brakes. Rebekah just landed crouched, not at all bothered by the drop. The scientists, guards, and other people of a working environment nature looked at the three teens in surprise. Angel gave them a hard look and addressed them all in a loud, commanding voice.

"Alright everyone… Freeze!" she declared.

As soon as the word freeze left her mouth, Angel opened fire with a pair of Ice Beams, sweeping across the room, capturing scientists and guards in the process of running either towards or from them. Angel spotted a particular pair and smirked. It was her parents… Angel ran towards them, jumping and spreading her wings for speed. She flew lower towards them and passed within an inch of their heads, spinning and straightening to a stop on the ground in front of them. Stuart and Michelle Star stopped running and gazed strangely at their daughter.

"Angelica?" Michelle asked.

Angel frowned at shot a pair of Ice Beams at both of the scientist's feet, freezing them to the ground and stopping them from escaping.

"My name… is Angel," the Articuno-morph replied coldly.

Michelle, when she heard this, burst into tears and would have fallen to the ground, had it not been for the ice encasing her legs up to her knees. Angel thought it a sad thing to watch a grown woman fall to pieces and felt sorry for her, before she reminded herself that it was her mother who made her this way, as well as her father. Stuart gave his wife a sad glance before turning back to Angel. Angel looked him in the eye and was surprised to see that his eyes were just like hers'. They were a deep red, like fire tamed and put in his eyes. He held his hands up in surrender as he watched Angel and began to speak to her for the first time in almost a full year.

"Angel… I know you hate us and you have every right to. But please leave Michelle out of this… I was the one who offered you to this organisation, I'm the one to blame," he said softy, his eyes never leaving Angel's.

"Why should I believe you?!" Angel shouted back, watching in satisfaction as Stuart cringed from the volume of her voice. "Because of you two I've lost my humanity! I'm a freak, a defect of nature and you expect me to forgive either of you!? Even if you're right and you're the only one to blame, you can't do anything to help!"

"Listen to your father Angelica… Angel. Please hear us out," Michelle now spoke up, her eyes still leaking out tears.

Angel slowly nodded.

"Fine, speak now and don't waste my time. Mizu's currently stopping whatever this horrible experiment is and once we're done this facility is going to become rubble!" Angel said.

"Mizu's here?!" Stuart and Michelle exclaimed.

"Oh… crap…" Stuart said weakly.

"What is it?" Angel asked sharply.

"Mizu… she's been bugged with a tracer in her spine. If she's with you then Team Rocket will be able to find you wherever you are," Michelle explained.

Angel's face darkened and her right hand clenched, her knuckles cracking ominously.

"Why... Why did you do this to your own children?" Angel asked, almost sadly. "What made you do this to us?"

Stuart and Michelle shared a look and turned to Angel.

"We did it… because you were dying," Stuart said slowly.

"What?"

"You were always ill and frail as a child. Your bones weren't strong and whenever you tripped you could've broken something easily. I would try and help you up but my grip would be too tight and you would only cry more… it pained me to see you that way. Yes we were part of Team Rocket but they supplied us with medicine to help you stay well… but you began messing up our experiments and the leader began pushing us for a test subject to try Human Pokemorphization… thinking that it could perhaps save your life, I suggested you as the subject…" Stuart explained.

"By incorporating DNA from a single Articuno feather into you we only expected you to get stronger, physically and mentally. Birds were always smart pokemon and you started to exhibit signs of greater intellect. Plus your physical strength and endurance shot through the roof… your illness was gone and your mother and I were overjoyed, we had saved our child from a painful, eventual death. However there were complications… you grew wings. This intrigued Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket, and he ordered further addition to your DNA. We had no choice; he might have classed you as a failed experiment and killed you if we refused! So we did it…… the pain you went through would have driven most normal humans mad but you pulled through. Even then you weren't complete when you were released by that scientist Paul… he was a close friend of mine, we worked in the same section but he was more of an engineer than a scientist. Always tinkering with machines and trying to create more humane ways of containing pokemon than cages. Then he was ordered to create a tank that would accelerate your growth until you reached nineteen years old. You were only eight when you were put inside and after a few weeks you were fourteen!" Michelle added. "When you escaped Giovanni ordered that a new pokemorph be created to exceed you and to track and eliminate you. However he was failed and destroyed by you and your friends. So he ordered us to use Mizu, thinking you would never try to harm her. She became to ultimate pokemorph, Psychic-Dark-Steel AND immune to Bug types… however Fighting-types were quadruple effective so Giovanni ordered us to perform a gruesome surgery that would leave Mariko with a steel endoskeletal structure. It came equipped with contracting claws and wings, and covers almost 70 of her skeleton. By then we were heartbroken, having to put our children through such horrific events. We were ready to quit Team Rocket and face termination, you can't quit and organization like this and live. But Mizu found you… she didn't try and bring you back. We can hear everything she hears and we realized that sooner or later you would find us. Now you have… please take us home."

Angel's mind was racing with such an intake of information and she found herself experiencing major flashbacks. A little blonde girl on a swing while a man pushed her, a woman tucking two little girls into bed, the blonde girl playing Tag with a brunette girl, a Marill being stroked by the two girls, the blonde girl being pulled away from the man and woman, both of whom were crying, and finally she remembered Paul again. Tears threatened to spill from Angel's eyes but she resisted the urge to curl up and cry. How could she have done this? She came to the facility ready to murder her parents who, though misguided, were only trying to protect her.

"Why didn't you contact me? You could've tried to send me a message and tell me all this!" Angel exclaimed, tears now flowing freely from her eyes.

Behind her there was an explosion as the Rayquaza was broken free from the bindings. However, when Angel looked up, she realized something was wrong. The Rayquaza's normally green scales were black and rotten, as if it were a zombie. Mizu was lying on the ground in front of it, having been batted aside by a Metal Claw.

"What the?!" Angel cried in surprise.

She rushed into action, breaking the ice binding her parents' feet and rushed to Mizu's side. Mizu gave her a surprised look as she sat up from the ground, brushing down her clothes.

"The Rayquaza's been corrupted and is now a Shadow Pokemon. Imagine a beast of Rayquaza's power on the side of evil; it must be stopped," Mizu explained.

"Okay, if memory serves then Rayquaza should be four times weaker against my Ice moves so leave this to me… take… take Mom and Dad to safety!" Angel said, feeling weird as she said the words Mom and Dad.

Mizu registered no surprise but on the inside she was lost and confused. Her parents were here? Angel wanted her to take them to safety?

"Mizu snap out of it and get going!" Angel shouted in her face.

Mizu jumped, startled, and immediately went to action. She began glowing blue and held a hand out to her parents, as if offering them to take her hand. She clenched the hand into a fist and raised her middle finger and thumb, bringing them together. With a snap of her fingers both she and her parents were gone, having used Teleport. The Rayquaza however had used Angel's distraction to its advantage. Its right claw began glowing in a black colour, using Dragon Claw.

"Angel look out!" Ash yelled from above.

"Huh?"

Angel was smacked aside as the Dragon Claw pounded into her. She bounced across the floor twice before rolling to a stop, both her wings sporting holes where the Rayquaza's attack had punched through them. Ash ran up to the railing and jumped, summoning Pidgeot as he did so. The Bird Pokemon spread its beautiful wings wide and caught Ash as he landed on its back.

"Pidgeot, get that girl and take her out of here!" Ash ordered.

Pidgeot gave an affirmative cry and dived to ground level, scooping Angel in its talons gently and easily carrying the unconscious girl into the air. Pidgeot circled its way up the towering room, going up and up and up. Ash could see light above and asked Pidgeot to head for it. The pokemon banked upwards sharply and Ash found himself blinking in sunlight. Around him were the bases of three large towers. The Space Towers. Ash ordered Pidgeot to land and once it had Ash pulled out his new Pokenav. It showed the location of every trainer he had registered and he realized that all six others were outside too; some were on one of the Space Towers' upper floors. Ash looked at Angel and figured that she would be alright for the moment. He recalled Pidgeot and ran into one of the Space Towers, climbing up tens of flights of stairs. Ash ran until he felt a stitch forming between his ribs. He opened the nearest door he could see and almost collapsed. E was back outside, on a walkway from one Tower to another. Many metres below him, Angel was getting up.

'_Oh my head…' _she thought.

She suddenly felt excruciating pain in her back and tried to grab her left wing to see what was wrong with it. However she only grabbed air… she turned her neck and looked at her back, throwing up when she spotted what was wrong. Her wings were gone…they had rotted off her back, the skin surrounding where they used to be had turning black, cracked and scabbed. The rotted patches smelt strongly of pus and blood. Above Angel the Shadow Rayquaza opened its mouth and launched a large Shadow all at her. Angel noticed just in time and jumped up, however the explosion tossed her up off balance and she began to fall. Angel groaned as she hit the ground, leaving a five foot deep crater underneath her aching back. Above her the Shadow Dragon roared in triumph and climbed steadily higher, rising above the two towers it was between with alarming velocity. The other six of Angel's team were shocked, Angel had fallen? Without her wings Angel was at an extreme disadvantage as she could no longer fly up to the black Rayquaza in the sky. Angel got up off her feet slowly, her limbs shaking angrily in protest. However she refused to back down as a scowl of pure defiance crossed her face. She looked up in the air and saw the Shadow Pokemon sailing up through the air, possibly attempting to get high enough so that Angel and the others couldn't reach it, where it could launch ranged attacks. Without their pokemon they wouldn't stand a chance if it managed to get high enough and with them their pokemon would be slaughtered by the Legendary. Angel couldn't let it do that and found new strength in her resolve. She crouched down and tensed, building the pressure in her legs, slowly filling them with Ice-type energy until…

"Hnnnh!"

With a heave she let out the energy she had stored in her feet and the resulting blast shot her up into the air and towards the Shadow Rayquaza, but even with the super powered jump she would never make it without help… however Ash was the first to spot Angel heading their way and reached out his hand from the platform he was situated on, being the closest to the ground. Angel saw this and grasped his hand as Ash let out a grunt; swinging his whole body up to give Angel that much more speed.

"Ally-oop!" he called.

Angel grinned at his little shout as she continued her ascension through the air and saw Rebekah above her on a separate platform. Rebekah waited until Angel was just level with her before sandwiching herself over her back on the spot, her feet catching the bottom of Angel's. Rebekah felt her hands hit the metal of the platform underneath her and she threw her legs up, launching Angel even faster and higher. Jimmy was the third highest on the colossal superstructure, waiting until she was close enough and jumping up as hard as he could. He was just able to reach and grabbed a hold of Angel's shoulders before he threw his arms up, with Angel in them, and released her.

"There you go!" he cried, as he used his arms to keep her accelerating.

Angel became even faster as she rocketed upwards through the air, the wind force making her hair billow out behind her, also pinning her arms to her sides as she was unable to lift them now. In a second May was slightly above her, grabbing her hands and swinging her up over herself and allowing Angel's speed to top off at 181mps. Angel wondered whether she could fix her trenchcoat after the beating it had taken, while it was dragged behind her, flapping madly in the wind speed. Above Angel, almost three quarters up the structure's full height; Gary stood nervously on the ledge he was stuck on, the drop below him looking quite nauseous. However he noticed Angel speeding his way and leapt out to her, his hands reaching her feet, his arms bent into his chest for more power. He pushed upwards and left Angel with the word, "Climb!" before he fell down to be caught safely by Rebekah. Now Angel was beginning to leave an afterimage of her body and above her was Mizu, her wings expanded and allowing her to float, however they were badly dented and were obviously causing her pain. Mizu used Psychic to make Angel seem to go in slow-motion, long enough for her to say, "No giving up!" and released the psychic power that had gathered under her feet. Angel's body became wrapped in a shockwave of cyan blue as she shot upwards, nearing the speed of sound. The Rayquaza above her looked down and spotted her coming towards it at a high rate. It opened up its massive mouth and within the maw was a medium sized ball of orange… a Hyper Beam.

"Shit," Angel mumbled as both her hands became engulfed in Ice-energy.

She kept soaring up and realized that the monster above her would vaporize her long before she reached it. But Mizu's words came back to her, floating through her mind. _'No giving up…' _Angel's eyebrows knitted together in concentration, she would not give up yet! The dragon released its building Hyper Beam and Angel could do nothing but believe in herself and her friends as the beam engulfing her glowing figure. She entered the beam and shot up its middle her world shaking like crazy as her speed reached 280mps. Angel noticed also that the beam was slowing her down and if she didn't get through it then she would fall back down to earth… and she would not survive this time. Her breathing became heavy as she heated up from the attack, not being able to withstand the power completely. Angel nearly closed her eyes in defeat and prepared herself for her death. Before this could happen however, a bright light appeared in her vision, not to do with the attack that was slowly killing her. Around her all sounds and sights ceased as the surroundings became white and empty… she felt weightless in this strange place. The light above her became sharper, began changing… stretching and twisting to take the form of a person, reaching out to her. Angel could not tell who this person was, they were too indistinct but she felt at peace, calm. She felt her hands become lighter and she reached forward, grasping the person's hand lightly. As she did, she felt a massive wave of power flow into her arm from the person's touch, becoming strengthened by some unknown energy this being was providing her. Angel noticed pink sparks travelling from this beings arm into her own and her back suddenly felt strange, as if something was being pressed against it. She looked back up to the being holding her hand and it smiled. She couldn't tell, she just knew that this thing was smiling at her.

'_Ready?' _it asked.

Suddenly Angel's vision returned to normal and the being disappeared, the Shadow Rayquaza returning to her sight above her. With the energy Angel had suddenly received, she felt an enormous power boost that forced her body to go even faster as she broke the sound barrier with an earth shaking 'Boom!' She felt a strength within her, stronger than anything she'd ever felt before as she came even closer to the black monstrosity filling her vision. The Rayquaza let up on its Hyper Beam and spotted Angel bursting through the end, glowing as blue as ice. Her head was covered with a cone of energy that came from the shockwaves she was generating, which was streamlining her, making her shoot through the distance between them like an arrow. The dragon slashed at her with a Dragon Claw however she felt her power build higher still and blocked with… her wing? Angel spun around the claw and over its head, touching its neck with her feet and running up its length, her hands dragging her charged attack along its body, freezing whatever it touched. So cold was the attack, the dragon's skin contracted until it split, Angel's hands now ripping through the Shadow Pokemon's insides. Angel neared the straightened tail and with a tearing sound she pulled her freezing hands off the monster, screaming.

"RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

She yelled in righteous fury, pain, sorrow and anger as all her emotions from the past few months caught up to her. She ripped her freezing hands out of the beast, which was almost completely frozen solid. Angel continued into the air for at least a kilometre and above her the clouds gave way to stars… stars which spanned the heavens and reached as far as she could see. _'Beautiful…' _Angel felt herself slow completely and begin her decent back down to earth, right after the Rayquaza. Down below Angel's friends watched in amazement as Mizu landed heavily next to Gary and Rebekah. Above them, they watched as the Shadow Pokemon fell alarmingly fast, with roar of anger it exploded down into the hole it had made coming out from the underground facility, shattering upon impact with the floor far below, destroying everything down there completely right in front of their eyes. Angel's friends threw up their arms and cheered and yelled their success as a seventh joined them from above. While everyone else was cheering, Mizu was watching for any sign of Angel, worried about her sister. Since Mizu was concentrated on something other than screaming with joy she spotted the seventh person and turned slowly to face that person.

"Jake?"

Jake nodded, his normal grey hair flowing in the wind like grass in a field. He smiled and pointed up into the sky, just as the other five teens quietened down and finally noticed him. All six friends followed his direction and spotted Angel hurtling to the buildings they were standing between, the pathways and ledges, and platforms blocking her way. Everyone watched in shocked silence as Angel crashed through each one, loud and fast, before appearing again, coming through the platform around fifty metres above them. Angel spun backwards through the air, back flipping, her wings catching the air and slowing her down until with a heavy thud, she hit the pathway crouching.

"That has got to hurt…" she said with a grin.

**It is now the end of the longest chapter I have ever written in anything. Not even my English essays are as long as this and I've written lots of them.**

**Angel: Yeah this guy's a slob when it comes to schoolwork.**

**Me: Angel, how would you know? You've never been to school!**

**Angel: I don't know, I'm just saying so.**

**Me: Shut up and go back to the inter-chapter void where you belong for the moment.**

**Angel: Yes sir… (sulks off to go play with Jake)**

**Anyways I'd better be off. Again I am incredibly sorry for how long it took to write this, hopefully you'll keep reading in future. Also remember that Mizu is a main character granted by a request from a reviewer because she gave me the idea for a nice plot twist. If any of you think of a good idea or addition plz let me know ok? LaTeR DaYz**


	26. Chapter 26: Breaking Bonds

**Dark Angel**

**Yo everyone it's time for Chapter 26! And to Neko-Girl yes I did use the aerial battle scene from Advent Children (that movie rocked) because it's my favourite part of the movie, it's just so cool. Plus there was the coincidence of having 8 people on Angel's team, just like 7 people helped Cloud to fly, there were 7 people helping Angel to fly… coz her wings were gone.**

**Angel: I couldn't fly… it's like my freedom was taken away… and it looked like a right mess, it was all horrible and rotten looking. (0.0;)**

**Ahem… yes quite. Anyways I'm sure you'll all like to read this next chapter and find out what's in store for our heroes. Oh and before I forget, I've decided to have the heroes design a uniform but I'm having trouble thinking it up. I was thinking black leather and trench coats all round with blue in it somehow. Or maybe white instead of black. If any of you come up with something better let me know. Also I'd like to celebrate today for the first review for my other story Together Forever in over a year! That story was the first one I ever wrote and I plan to write a sequel soon but I'm going to write a few chapters at once and post them all to get people into it. Anyways enough of this drabble there'll be more at the end of the chapter… ;¬)**

**First though: In case people are getting curious am gonna do another age table and after this chapter I'll start adding dates to the next chapters.**

**Angel: 15**

**Jake: 14**

**Ash: 15**

**May: 14**

**Jimmy: 16**

**Rebekah: 15**

**Mizu: 16**

**Gary: 15**

**Chapter 26: Breaking Bonds**

Ash peered down the hole where the Shadow Rayquaza had fallen and whistled at the mess it had created after falling back in. He glanced over at Angel who had yet to realize who was standing behind her. However Mizu helped her to see. She coughed and nodded to Jake, making Angel turn to see what she was referring to. Needless to say Angel was stunned… again. Jake smiled and waved a little, not really sure how to respond seeing as he too thought he was dead. Angel just looked at him, her moving but no sound issuing forth.

"Hello? Are you in there?" Jake finally decided to say.

"But… h-how is this… how did you?" Angel spluttered.

"Let's just say I had some help from a… a relative of mine," Jake explained, not wanting to discuss the issue.

Angel blinked back tears, resolving not to cry. She merely took Jake's hand and shook it gently.

"I'm just glad to have you back… we all are, however you did it." She replied.

Jake grinned and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. All around the group a wind blew through the area, making those unaccustomed to chill shiver slightly. Angel gazed around herself, taking in everyone's expressions. Ash seemed pretty happy, having dealt another blow to the loathed Team Rocket. May matched Ash's expression with frightening similarity. Rebekah looked rather nonplussed having not really known about Team Rocket in the first place. Gary was smirking in his Gary-ish way while Mizu stood, her hands held behind her back in a relaxed fashion, rocking on her toes gently as if listening to music. Jimmy was grinning happily, also seemingly about docking points from Team Rocket. Not that Angel knew about his previous encounters with this particular group… and finally, Jake just seemed to glow with energy, happy to be alive. However something was amiss… May blinked and turned her head towards the forest growing beyond and below the cliff's plateau that our heroes were standing on.

"May, is something up?" Ash asked, noticing.

"…No. I don't think so. I just feel like something… or someone is watching us," she replied.

Pikachu on Ash's shoulder perked her ears up at this and looked around warily. The only thing she could think of; that induced such unease was a trap from Team Rocket (Jessie, James, Meowth). Ash blinked and started when suddenly Pikachu was ripped from his shoulder by a large rubber gloves on an extending pole. Ash looked up and spotted a small blimp, black in colour, with a large red R on both sides. Standing on the observation deck of the blimp was Jessie, holding the contraption that held Pikachu. Angel, Jake, Mizu, Rebekah, Gary and Jimmy finally noticed what was happening and looked up as well. As soon as Angel saw the R her eyes darkened and her hands clenched. However, before she could launch herself at them, a staying hand rested on her shoulder.

"Don't worry Angel, they have this one under control," Jake said soothingly.

Angel blinked in surprise and looked up at the blimp again. Ash and May had mounted Pidgeot and were hurtling towards the flying contraption at high velocity. Jessie saw them approaching and ducked into the craft's interior. Before Pidgeot could reach the blimp and punch a hole through it with his Steel Wing, a large greenish jet of flames caused him to barrel roll left, ducking underneath the craft as an Altaria appeared. May turned to look back and noticed that someone was riding the Altaria. Only one person she knew had white hair like that… Brendan.

"Ash! Brendan's behind us!" she called over the howling winds.

"Him!? Great… Pidgeot use Agility and try to get behind them!" Ash answered.

Pidgeot shrieked the affirmative and blasted forward, nearly causing Ash and May to fly off. The wind rushing past tore at their skin and heated them up as Pidgeot moved close to the sound barrier. The great bird pokemon turned in a great banking arc that took them behind where Brendan was looking for them. Ash grimaced as he prepared to order Pidgeot's next attack. However before he could the Brendan and Altaria ahead of them vanished and another Dragon Breath came at them, this time from above. Pidgeot had no chance to react and was struck on the back, Ash and May taking most of the attack. Both teens yelled out in pain but Ash was able to shout over the pain to Pidgeot.

"Use Whirlwind!" he cried.

Pidgeot spun to face their attackers and used his mighty wings to send a spiralling blast of wind towards them. The Altaria simply floated, oblivious to the incoming attack, and was soon caught up in the maelstrom, however with it's cloud-like wings it seemed to gently float on the powerful wind. Ash cursed his luck and asked Pidgeot to try and close the distance between them. Pidgeot did so and with a flap of his wings the gap between them vanished and Pidgeot delivered a dehabilitating Peck attack right in Altaria's face. Altaria shrieked in response to this and opened its mouth, a ball of orange energy gathered in its throat. Ash noticed this and his eyes widened in disbelief… Brendan was going to use Hyper Beam while he and May were still riding on Pidgeot. May, however, was quick to respond.

"Pidgeot get out of the way quick!" May yelled.

Pidgeot nodded and attempted to dive to the side however the Hyper Beam punched its way into and straight through Pidgeot's right wing, causing the bird pokemon to lose consciousness from the pain and start tumbling to the ground. Ash held on tightly as May wrapped her arms around him and held on for dear life, the wind rushing through their hair and roaring in their ears as they accelerated towards the ground. Ash waited for the crash back down to earth, however he could suddenly feel Pidgeot slowing down. He peered down the bird's side and spotted Rebekah, her hands on Pidgeot's stomach, having jumped up and slowed their fall. With Pidgeot safely held, Ash returned the badly wounded pokemon to his ball and Rebekah caught him and May before they fell any further. This entire exchange took less than two seconds and they began to fall again, however with Rebekah there to stop them hitting the ground at a lethal velocity, they were safe.

"Damn that Brendan, we need to save Pikachu!!!" Ash yelled.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Onboard the blimp Jessie stared morosely at Pikachu, while she tried to shock her way out of the plastic container. She let loose more yellowish electricity and the box remained unmarked still. It was no good as it appeared to be entirely shock-proof. Plus Iron Tail wouldn't work because there was no room in there to manoeuvre and build its power. Just at that moment the blimp rocked slightly and footsteps were heard coming towards the hold that Pikachu and Jessie were in. Pikachu's ears perked up in the hopes that Ash had come to save her. Then Brendan entered the main hold, strutting through the door as if he was just pronounced Ruler of the Universe. Pikachu's ears flopped down in disappointment. He walked to the table on which sat the box which Pikachu was trapped in. Crouching down he leered into the see-through panel at the front at his captive, his ruby coloured eyes filled with anger and glee at the same time.

"You know, I think I might be too cruel for my own good…" Brendan said suddenly. "But I think that Ash deserves this, seeing as he humiliated me so in front of all my friends. Why he thinks he could barge in and take May from me is inexplicable. So the best way to get back at him is to take you from him, as he took May from me. However I do believe that Giovanni might have a good use for you… he's been wanting the techs back at his base to do more research into Electra's change from pokemon to pokemorph and to do that we need to study the change as it happens. So maybe… if we were to use you… being an Electric type and all… maybe then we'd learn something."

Pikachu blinked in confusion, not understanding much of what Brendan had said. But she got enough of the message to realize what it meant. _'He'll take me from Ash…' _she thought sadly.

"You bastard!"

Brendan turned suddenly in surprise and was knocked to the side as a gloved hand crashed into the side of his face. Pikachu's eyes lit up in delight as Brendan fell to the side, revealing who had intervened. Angel cracked the knuckles on her hand and pointed her other one at Brendan, palm open. On its surface the skin began glowing blue and a tiny ball of Ice-Element appeared. She made the ball grow larger and larger until it was the size of her head. Brendan smirked at her while he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Say goodnight, Brendan Birch..." Angel began.

Suddenly a hard blow at the back of Angel's skull made the world spin and dissolve into darkness as she collapsed onto the floor. Jessie grinned and put down the large spanner, then helping Brendan to his feet. Brendan spat on Angel before kicking her once and walking out the room. But not before he said: "Goodnight," in response to the thoroughly unconscious pokemorph. Jessie was then left on her own with the Pokemorph and Pikachu and so began binding Angel. First she was field-stripped of her clothes and Jessie dressed her in loose, plain garments in case she had hidden something in her other clothes that could be used as a potential weapon. Then a pair of electrical cuffs was attached to her wrists, magnetizing behind her back and forcing all elemental energy to leave her hands, making it so she couldn't use them to freeze anything. The cuffs, once on, made a fizzing sound and a green light on each on flashed on, indicating that they were active. Being with Brendan, though perilous, had taught Jessie how to be smart and how to be sneaky with everything she did. Looking around once, Jessie pulled off one of her earrings and put it on Angel's ear, noticing that it pierced her once unmarked ear, but once on she nodded to herself and turned the gem on it. A small light blinked on Jessie's watch and she grinned to herself.

"And now, Angel Star, we take you back to where you belong."

0o0o0o0o0o0

Down on the ground things were getting agitated very quickly. Ash was trying with all his might to keep up with the blimp, running across the ground too fast for all but Mizu, Rebekah and Jake to keep up. May, Jimmy and Gary had already fallen behind but still they pursued relentlessly. Ash drew in ragged breaths and his lungs felt as though they were burning from Charizard's Flamethrower. His legs felt like they were made of rubber but he still ran on, his eyes fixed solely on the black blimp ahead.

"Ash you need to slow down, you're going to end up hurting yourself," Rebekah warned him, running just in front of him backwards so she could face him.

"No! I need to get to Pikachu! Angel hasn't come back yet, they must've captured her too!" Ash exclaimed.

"What? Oh shit, of course!" Jake declared, slapping himself on the head.

Behind the four of them, May summoned Latias and the Eon Pokemon began carrying May, Gary and Jimmy towards the group ahead of them. Jake waved them over and went through a various number of scenarios in his head at lightning speed, trying to devise a safe plan of getting Angel off the blimp without shooting it down. However there were too many unknown factors, how many people were onboard? Did they have weapons? Were there any traps or potentially hazardous environmental issues? Finally May and the other two reached them and May returned Latias to the red energy that pokeballs used to contain pokemon and pulled her back into her ball. Jake sighed and looked at them all in turn before he began to speak.

"We can only assume that Angel's been caught too, we need to either get up there or bring that blimp down to us. We need to get Angel back!" he explained.

Ash grunted in annoyance.

"And Pikachu… I guess," Jake added hastily.

Mizu's eyes glowed blue and an aura surrounded Gary as she lifted him off the ground, her wings out and allowing her to fly up with him. They hurtled towards the blimp as fast as the servo-motors and hydraulics in Mizu's wings would allow. However Gary heard an ominous sound ahead and decided against going any further. He quickly grabbed Mizu's arm and flung her back, before being engulfed by the Dragonbreath attack from Brendan's Altaria. Mizu steadied herself and used one hand to stop Gary's fall, using the other to unleash a devastating Psychic on Altaria. The pokemon writhed in her Psychic grip until it fell unconscious and plummeted to earth. Mizu glanced up at the blimp and spotted Brendan on the observation deck. She reached for him with her mind, attempting to read his thoughts however all she could hear was…

'_The three and five equal the total of fifteen plus the next five added on equals twenty…'_

"Brendan's shielding his thoughts by playing games in his head… he's a clever one," Mizu muttered. "Fine I'll just bring that balloon down!"

After Gary had finally been safely deposited on the ground Mizu them brought her two hands together. She clasped them apart from her first two fingers, and held them together. As if holding a gun, she pointed her hands at the blimp while holding them in that position. Just in front of the tips of the four straight fingers, a small ball of rainbow coloured stuff appeared. This ball grew in size until the size of a baseball and Mizu raised her hands over her head. Once done she pumped in as much Psychic power as she could to her hands and threw them forward, unleashing the now fully developed attack.

"Psybeam!!!" she cried out.

The Psybeam erupted from her fingertips like a shotgun and hurled itself at the blimp, glowing in a whole spectrum of colours. Onboard the blimp, Brendan just grinned as the attack reached within five meters of the craft… and coruscated off a barrier of some kind. Mizu gasped, surprised that her attack didn't work. She was then even more surprised when a board on the side of the blimp's crew section slid aside and revealed some kind of turret. It coughed angrily and a large cloud of razor sharp needles shot out, skewering the air where Mizu had been. Though Mizu was now safely above the hail of needles, her wings saving her, having lifted her up out of the way. On the deck of the blimp Brendan was getting annoyed. _'This bitch is quick… We'll need to use something a little faster then.' _He quickly went over to a white, non-descript footlocker and kicked it open. Lying inside was a blood red rifle with an unusually long and thin barrel. He hefted the rifle into his arms and took aim, using the scope above the barrel to centre his sights on Mizu's heart.

"Eat this!"

He pulled the trigger and instead of firing a bullet, the rifle shot a beam of intense red light out at the speed of light. Moving at such velocities, Mizu had no chance to dodge it and was struck in the chest. The laser burnt through her skin like a match through dry leaves however it met her steel-reinforced ribcage and stopped. Mizu gasped, her metal armour heating up rapidly. If she didn't move it would melt off and incinerate her organs at the same time as the slag would punch its way through the rest of her skin. Mizu snapped her fingers and vanished in a flash of blue light, leaving Brendan bewildered as to where she had gone. There was a cough from behind him and he turned to be eye to eye with an enraged psychic. Mizu's purple skirt blew in the high winds and she used her psychic powers to harness the wind and shoot it at Brendan, blasting him off the blimp. Mizu smirked as he fell, screaming, into the woods below him. Mizu quickly scanned the interior of the blimp with her mind and determined that Angel was in a large, empty room. She turned and was about to walk to the door into the interior when something blew out of it and exploded in her face. She was blasted back, her wings and clothes burnt and dented from the blast. The last thing she saw was Jessie, holding a rocket launcher on her shoulder, blowing her a kiss goodbye, before her vision was filled with the blue of the sky. Her vision underwent a strange effect and the blimp she could see out of the corner of her eyes rippled in the distortion and vanished, along with it, her psychic ability to track Angel. They had vanished…

'_Oh… dear…'_

Down below May noticed something falling off the blimp and turned everyone else's attention to it. After a hard look Jake concluded that Brendan had been forced off the blimp and Ash immediately bolted in his direction along with May and Gary. Jimmy, Rebekah and Jake followed promptly and caught up with Ash in the lead, as they began to enter the forest that surrounded the Space Towers. Jake could hear shouting and realized that it was the pilot from earlier he had left up one of the pine trees. Up ahead there was groaning and the five hustled through the undergrowth, reaching a small clearing where Brendan lay facedown, covered in leaves and dirt from crashing through the canopy. He was starting to get up when there was another crashing sound and a pink-headed person landed on top of him. Gary started and ran over to Mizu, pulling her up from the ground and steadying her. Meanwhile Ash walked slowly and calmly over to where Brendan lay and rough dragged him up to his feet.

"Birch!!!" he yelled in Brendan's face.

Brendan seemed to awake with a start and kicked Ash's kneecap, causing the taller trainer to release him in pain. Brendan turned and was once again grounded by a fist, this time it was May's. Brendan rolled back and propped himself up on his elbows, before he realized that he was now staring down the barrel of a very, very long gun. May held it unswervingly from between Brendan's eyes and pulled back the hammer, ready to pull the trigger and blast his head off his traitorous shoulders.

"Alright you motherfucking bastard! Tell me where that blimp's heading before I blow your fucking balls off!!" May shouted at him, her guns aim moving down to between his legs.

"Heh, you don't have what it takes to shoot me!" Brendan sneered back.

May moved the gun down slightly more and pulled the trigger, blowing a large hole in the ground directly between Brendan's legs. Brendan paled and began to sweat when May moved the gun back to its intended target and grabbed his right arm with his left as if something had burnt it. May almost shot him on reflex but stopped herself however she was then wishing she had when Brendan removed his hand to reveal some kind of blinking device on his arm. In under a second there was a blue flash and Brendan had vanished. Ash blinked in shock and turned away from the others, punching a tree as hard as he could.

"Dammit, PIKACHU!!!" he roared.

May too was furious with herself. They had let Team Rocket escape with their leader and Ash's best of all his friends. Rebekah, Jimmy, Gary, and Jake all felt their suffering but none felt as bad as Mizu, who was kneeling on the ground crying into her hands. Gary knelt next to her gently and put an arm gingerly around her shoulder. Mizu threw her arms around Gary, surprising the boy so much he fell over, now lying down with Mizu crying into his chest. Jake shook his head, knowing well that Mizu was very upset but her violent reaction to her sadness was also because her telepathy and empathic skills were picking up the sadness of the others as well, making her feel six times worse than anyone else. Rebekah groaned in frustration and head butted a tree, her horn easily piercing the bark and drilling its way through until Rebekah's actual forehead hit the tree. She stood there with her head against the tree, making frustrated sounds as her anger continued to build, the tree's bark beginning to black as it burned away. Jake just stood with his arms folded, trying to stay strong but he too was breaking inside at the loss of Angel and Pikachu. Ash was famous in quite a few places around the world as one of the most skilled teens in this generation, known for his Pikachu and their unbelievable amount of wins.

"What do we do now?" Jimmy asked, sitting against a tree with his arms wrapped around his knees.

"Honestly? I don't know… we can't see, smell, or sense where that blimp went. It must have some kind of cloaking device that shield it from the senses," Jake replied. "But such technology is only supposed to be in the testing stages the news said, I didn't think Team Rocket would be able to create a working one. We weren't expecting it…"

"Were you expecting this?"

0o0o0o0o0o0

Jake looked up and ducked as a Thunderbolt rushed over his head, exploding against the ground far behind him. He looked back and spotted the one thing he didn't want to see again in a hurry. Only one person he knew of had yellow-black wings, a spiky mane of hair and yellow skin comprised of very, very fine and small feathers.

"Elektra…"

"A pleasure as always, but ah you must introduce me to your friends, I'm afraid I haven't had the pleasure of meeting them!" Elektra replied, smiling… if a bird could smile.

"I see they've made some modifications to you…" Jake said; his voice neutral.

"Oh yes, I have more of my original pokemon DNA back… something the techs forgot about when we first met. I have to say it was a strange experience to have teeth and lips. But I must say I do think my beak is better," Elektra responded.

As she said this she gently tapped at said appendage with a clawed talon. Ash, May, Mizu and the others were now more than aware of her presence and were gaping in awe at the creature before them. Elektra was now taller than Jake remembered and wore what looked like a black latex bodysuit that hugged close to her features like a second skin. Elektra's electric-blue gaze swept across the group as if scanning them somehow and her eyes settled on Mizu. She gasped and clapped her talons together in delight.

"Oh I remember you! You're the supposed 'Greatest Created' back at the bio-lab! They say you're nearly invincible to pokemon attacks," she declared.

"And I remember you Elektra. I remember when you were brought into the lab in chains, your honour destroyed and your dignity robbed from you. You were defiant to the end," Mizu replied.

"Ah yes, good times. But now I see the light," Elektra quipped, her body crackling with electricity.

Mizu and the others tensed, ready to either run for cover or get ready to fight. Ash, Gary, Jimmy and May all had no illusions of being able to survive with such an obviously powerful creature. They were ready to leg it til they were a safe distance away and cheer for the others. Elektra smirked at the six teens' reactions and shot a warning jolt at them. The four previously mentioned ducked behind, or climbed up trees and peered around so they could get a good view. Jake's skin turned a mottled brown and Mizu began glowing, while Rebekah became hotter and she ripped the sleeves off her sweatshirt, letting her flames grow without setting fire to her clothes. Elektra grinned and laughed before taking off, launching a Thunderbolt at Jake. Jake took the attack easily and Elektra frowned, however she wasn't able to contemplate for long as Rebekah had jumped up and hit her hard in the stomach with a devastating uppercut. Elektra grabbed her wrist while her arm was in reach and channelled electricity through Rebekah, shocking her badly. Rebekah's hair stood on end and she crackled loudly, however the fires around her arms became hotter and bigger, forcing the Zapdos-morph to let her go. Rebekah fell and landed unsteadily on the ground, while her muscles spasmed slightly from the shock.

"Ouch… Jake are you alright?" Rebekah asked.

"Fine, I changed my element to Ground before the fight," Jake replied, using a thumb to indicate his earth-brown skin.

Mizu and Rebekah nodded before Mizu shot a Confusion attack at Elektra, forcing her to fly under the wave of psychic energy. She swooped back up, her wings barely needing to move to keep her aloft, and met with Rebekah's flaming foot. The kick to her stomach sent her hurtling into a nearby old oak. The crash left a deep indentation in the tree and Elektra groaned in pain. She lifted her arms and used her mighty talons to pry herself out of the crater and onto the ground. Her wings straightened with a cracking sound and she lit her arms up with crackling blue electricity. Jake grimaced, knowing full well how much power she could put in a Thunderbolt previously. However, as she said, she was now even more powerful. Elektra looked at her three enemies and weighed options quickly in her head, pure electricity driving the electrical pulses in her brain and allowing her to think at lightning speeds.

'_Hmm… I'm outnumbered and a little overpowered but maybe if I could distract one of them then I'd only have two to worry about. That psychic girl needs to go first… I remember now! Her pokemon-form uses up far too much energy for her to sustain for long so if I keep putting pressure on her and force her to go to that form then I'll let her wear herself out! Then that polymorph is next, Jake, he was quite good last time but he can't stand up to pure electricity for too long. That fire-girl is of little concern for the moment but she does have a mean right kick, better finish her quick.'_

This train of thought was over in around 0.024 seconds and Elektra grinned at her opponents. Mizu squinted a little in response and prepared for a Psychic attack. Suddenly though, without warning, a bolt of lightning fell from the sky and struck Elektra. The flash was so bright that all but Jake had to look away, Jake watching intently at what was happening. As with lightning it was gone in under a second and the resounding thunderclap blew the three morphs off their feet, spinning them through the air and tearing at their clothes. Mizu caught herself in midair with her telekinesis and Rebekah landed lightly on her feet while Jake chose to just hit the ground and get back up. Jake grimaced at what had occurred. _'She disappeared…'_

Another bolt of lightning struck the ground just behind Mizu and the thunderclap blew all three away from each other again, however, from the bolt Elektra flew out and started assaulting Mizu with a flurry of static charged punches. Mizu raised her arms in a cross pattern to protect herself and a Barrier formed around her. Elektra frowned and shot a thunderbolt straight through it, hitting Mizu and started to fry her slowly, her steel endoskeleton conducting the electricity particularly towards her ribcage. Mizu's heart began to beat faster and faster until Mizu thought her chest would explode. _'I can't take this pounding… I need to finish her quickly!' _Elektra stopped the attack and landed on the ground, keeping Jake and Rebekah at bay with a few Shock Wave attacks while Mizu began to transform. Jake and Rebekah stopped, standing next to each other, watching in awe at what was happening. Mizu writhed in the air as a white glow enveloped her, her form growing larger and larger with each passing second. The glowing silhouette sprouted large, wicked claws, about a foot long each. Large legs like a cats with tufts of fur appeared and a long, twisting, forked tail came from behind. Finally the glow disappeared and they could see Mizu for what she had become.

"Chimeria…" Jake whispered.

Elektra took the opportunity to attack Rebekah and Jake at the same time with a lightning-fast, supercharged Thunderpunch to their stomachs, using both her arms. Rebekah collapsed back, panting hard as electricity screamed through her muscles, paralysing her on the ground. Jake however took the attack a little better, avoiding paralysis but being burnt badly by the heat from the shock. Mizu growled rather like a lion at Elektra's back and the Zapdos-morph turned to face her adversary. Mizu had a head like that of an Espeon, cat-like with great big ears that had tufts of purple fur growing at their bases. Her face resembled an Umbreon's with black stripes of fur coming from below glowing red eyes. Her cheeks had even bigger purple tufts emerging from them. Her lioness body was generally purple but she had metal plates on her shoulder and knee joints in this form, along with some kind of shallow metal boz on her upper back. Thin slots were set in its sides and there was a minute whirring sound coming from within. She also had black stripes across her back and a single stripe going along her tails. On her forehead was her chakra gem but it was circled by a ring of yellow. Sitting down Mizu was around 7ft tall and about 5ft long. Mizu stood up and crouched like a lion waiting to pounce, her cat's-body glowing a deep violet and black. Her full length was now about 12ft… she was massive. Elektra blinked back her shock at how big Mizu now was. She expected her to just change a little but she was completely different and Elektra could feel the power emanating from her. Mizu roared and with a slicing sound, huge metal wings slashed out of the slots on her box set in her back. It now resembled a jetpack of sorts.

"Oh… shit…," Elektra whimpered.

Mizu shot forward like a cannonball and crashed head-first into Elektra, barely affected by the impact. Elektra was sent spinning up into the air by the collision and righted herself with her own wings, charging up a Thunder attack. Mizu blasted into the air after her like a jet, her wings leaving small displacement trails through the air (think of the Banshee from Halo) behind them. Elektra released her Thunder and it shot from the clouds above, Striking Mizu and shocking her more so than normal. Mizu roared and the electricity swarming her blew off of her, thanks to the Light Screen that had now surrounded her. Elektra groaned in annoyance and her right fist began to glow a gray-ish colour. She flew forwards as fast as she could and punched straight through the Light Screen with her Brick Break, catching Mizu straight across the face. Mizu growled and used her large paw to grab Elektra's fist. _'Fuck! She let me hit her on purpose!' _she thought in despair. Mizu's chakra gem began glowing in the familiar rainbow colour of a psychic attack and she unleashed a large Psybeam straight at Elektra, point-blank. The avian teen fell back to earth with a crash and Mizu landed on top of her. She reached a claw to Elektra's throat and began pressing. Elektra felt herself being pierced and choked at the same time, blood dripping down from the wound growing on her neck. Summoning half her electrical reserves she unleashed a Zap Cannon from her hands, which were placed against Mizu's furry chest. Mizu was blow off of her, landing a good ten feet away, groaning as she returned to her human form. Elektra got up and winced as her neck throbbed in pain from the shallow hole that was now on it.

"Damn that was tough. Now for the next target," she said smugly.

Rebekah was still downed however Jake had gotten back up, smoking slightly. He glared at Elektra, his eyes slowly turning red. The white of his eyes clouded and turned pure black, not allowing any light to escape, his irises blood red and his pupils much smaller. A black glow erupted from him, crackling with black energy. Elektra hesitated, not knowing what Jake was doing. Jake began seething at the mouth, his breath ragged and his eyes clenched shut. In his head there was a little battle going on.

'_Let me fight for a while!' _Dark Jake whined.

'_We're here to defeat her, not thoroughly annihilate and rape her. Knowing you, you'd do both spectacularly.' _Jake replied.

'_Come on, what's the harm? She might know where to find Angel!__ Or… how about we hang back and let the little firebrand handle this? She hasn't had her fair share of fighting for a while…' _Dark Jake shot back.

'_Hmm… okay, that sounds fair. I guess if you can't fight once in a while then I can't either. Besides we need to concentrate on getting this electrical shit out of our system.' _Jake answered.

Jake nodded to himself and the black glow surrounding him faded, his eyes returning to normal. Elektra grinned and shot forward like a bolt of lightning, striking him full in the face with another Thunderpunch. Jake took it hard and flew into a tree, crashing straight through it and causing it to topple and fall… right on top of him. Rebekah gasped in shock, knowing that now she was the last one able to fight. Elektra turned to her and grinned maliciously, walking slowly towards her, her hips swaying seductively. Elektra reached her and Rebekah tried to crawl away but was powerless to move. Elektra sat down on her stomach and gazed into her eyes.

"You know, you're quite the eye-catcher. What's your name beautiful?" she asked.

"R-Rebekah Torche," Rebekah replied through the haze of static clouding her muscles.

"Mmm, nice name. Pity your too human, me and you would make a nice couple," Elektra stated.

Rebekah gasped as Elektra placed her talons on her breasts, giving them a gentle squeeze.

"Y-Your sick!" Rebekah yelled. "I c-can't get a-away!"

"Sticks and stones hunny. Besides it's not like any normal guy would want you," Elektra answered condescendingly. "To normal people, you're nothing but a freak, a little mutation of nature. Nobody will love you, not like I can."

"Y-You're wrong!" Rebekah spat back.

"Oooh, did I hurt your feelings? Is the little girl gonna cry?" Elektra laughed.

Rebekah snapped. Elektra leapt off her as her body heat soared into the hundreds of degrees. Electricity that lanced across Rebekah's limbs vanished and she pounded her fists into the ground, forcefully knocking herself back onto her feet. Elektra raised an arm towards her and shot a Thunderbolt at her. Rebekah seemed to flicker to one side and the attack hit a tree, blackening its trunk and making the leaves wither and fall from it. Elektra scowled in response as Rebekah's eyes seemed to blank out. Hidden from eyes: Ash, May, Jimmy and Gary were watching in amazement. Gary was thoroughly impressed with Mizu's power, even though she seemed to be a pacifist she could definitely pack a punch. Jimmy was the next one to be impressed with Rebekah.

"What's she doing?" he asked.

"She's going red!" May exclaimed, pointing.

True enough, Rebekah's normally pale skin was starting to darken to a deep red, her eyes blackening like Jake's. However her eyes glowed like hot embers in a fire. Both her hands became wrapped in fire and her jeans began to burn, the lower half of them burning right off, leaving behind half of them. It now looked like she was wearing shorts that were burned at the edges. Smoke rose from her body as if she was on fire and she emitted crackling noises like burning coals. Elektra was not impressed and fired a Shock Wave across the ground, aiming to paralyse her legs. Rebekah's eyes narrowed and she seemed to vanish, appearing behind Elektra and kicking her in the back of the head. Elektra bounced across the ground like a rag doll and rolled to a stop, shaking slightly. Rebekah grinned and shot forward, moving so fast that she was leaving a trail of flames on the ground. Elektra jumped up into the air and tried to fly away, not wanting to fight someone so fast.

"Where'd you think you're going?" a voice came from ahead.

Elektra turned and saw Rebekah, hanging in midair in front of her. She veered to the side but was kicked hard in the back, right down to the ground again. She landed on her front, coughing up blood. Burns and cuts crossed her body and one of her eyes was half-closed. Rebekah landed silently behind her, her arms folded. Elektra got back up and placed her talons on the ground, a Shock Wave attack circling her and expanding outwards in a full 360 degree attack. Rebekah grinned and ran forward, she shimmied to the right and suddenly there were 30 or so Rebekah's running around Elektra. Each one was following a different pattern and they were moving to fast for the electricity to conduct properly.

"Whoa! What's going on? Did she use Double Team?" Jimmy asked from behind a tree.

"No… all of them are Rebekah, she's moving so fast that she's in all of those places at once," Gary answered.

"No way!" May exclaimed.

"It must be Overheat! She's using all that fire energy to supercharge her muscles. She's gone red from all that heat inside!" Ash declared.

"I agree," Gary responded.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Rebekah shouted out to Elektra, whose gaze was jumping from one Rebekah to the next.

"What's the matter? Can't keep up? And I can go a little faster still!" she called.

The voice sounded like it was coming from all around Elektra and she put her hands over her head, covering her hidden ears. It was too loud… like fifty people shouting at once. There was a rushing sound and each of the Rebekah's vanished, leaving a wall of dust rising up around Elektra. Rebekah was running circles around her too fast for even her eyes to track. Elektra tried punching part of the dust wall, thinking that Rebekah would be hit if she's moving so fast. However the circle altered, dodging out of her reach.

"I didn't know you were so eager to finish this, alright then let's go!" Rebekah replied to her attempted attack.

Rebekah suddenly flickered into vision behind Elektra, delivering a high-speed spinning kick to the back of her head. She vanished and appeared in front of her in a charging position, she then threw a punch at her face, vanishing again. She reappeared above Elektra, curled up and spinning round and round like the wheel of a car, going at insane speeds. At the last spin, she unfurled and dealt a devastating axe-kick to Elektra's head, causing the morph to skid back. Rebekah hung in midair, one leg outstretched, for a moment before she vanished again. With the sound of a jet taking off, Rebekah appeared again, below Elektra's chin and kicked upwards, her leg stretched 180 degrees from her other. Elektra's neck almost snapped and she flew upwards, not because of her wings, into the air. She crossed her arms over each other and looked down, trying to spot Rebekah, her face was one of fury. Rebekah appeared, upside-down, right underneath Elektra and began to kick her upwards even more, one… two… three… four kicks. Rebekah kicked again and stopped, her face contorting in pain. Elektra took this chance to try and fire a Zap Cannon at her, however Rebekah vanished once more, gone for a full second before appearing at Elektra's right. She punched Elektra through the air, bouncing her around like a pinball, moving too fast for most eyes to track. All that could be seen was Elektra, bouncing around in the air, being hit in one direction and ricocheting another way, before changing direction once again. Rebekah decided that her muscles had taken enough and began to end the fight. Elektra hung in midair, around ten metres off the ground, with streaks of red flashing around her, cutting, bruising and breaking her. Rebekah made one last appearance right above Elektra and axe kicked her down. A metre before Elektra hit the ground Rebekah appeared again, sideways. She spun once and delivered a downwards heel kick to Elektra's gut just as she smacked into the ground, blasting her way into the earth. Rebekah was thrown back, rolling across the ground until she hit a nearby tree, her redness fading away until she was back to normal.

"Rebekah!" Jimmy cried, rushing over to her.

The other three, Ash, May and Gary, also came out of hiding and took in the full scene. There were fallen trees everywhere, the ground was scorched and lines of flames were everywhere, burning into the grass. A large circle of grass was gone, dry earth beneath, revealing where Rebekah had ran circles around Elektra. One of the fallen trees shifted and Jake clambered out from under it, looking better than he had when it fell on him. He looked around and sweatdropped at the mess.

"What did I miss?" he asked.

"Re-," Ash began.

Suddenly, from the crater where Elektra was supposed to be, a bolt of lightning shot at him and Ash vanished. A thunder cloud over their heads drifted away and the six teens left were gazing in shock. May reacted first and screamed, thinking Ash had died. She got to her feet, having been kneeling next to Rebekah and ran towards the crater, only to be struck by another bolt and vanish as well. Bolts shot from the darkness and struck each of the five remaining heroes, even the unconscious Mizu, and each one of them vanished. The seven clouds above where they were now began to drift apart, the wind leading them all away from each other. In the darkness of the crater in the ground, a dying Elektra grinned, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth. She coughed and more blood splattered her burnt, torn and tattered clothes, which revealed a large hole in her stomach, her internal organs shyly peeking through a burst ribcage. She heaved in another breath and coughed out more blood, the burnt edges of the wound on her abdomen moving around and causing even more pain. The crater she lay in was not deep, only a few metres down. She lay on her back and gazed up at the now clear sky, gazing into the setting sun. Consciousness began to leave her and she uttered one last word before her world dissolved.

"B-Beautiful…"

0o0o0o0o0o0

In Kanto, it was a fun time at Pallet Town; Professor Oak was celebrating the completion of the latest pokedex, now far advanced from the one he had given Ash Ketchum years ago. He was residing at the moment in Deliah Ketchum's house, waiting politely for her to finish making tea. He opened the new, sleek black pokedex and pointed it at Deliah's Mr. Mime, who was currently sweeping the floor with a brush. The pokedex immediately activated and a high resolution of Mr. Mime appeared, as well as his weight, height, size compared to Prof. Oak, preferred environment, and a voice sounded from the device, giving a description of the pokemon.

"_Mr. Mime, the Barrier Pokemon. Mr. Mime is a master of pantomime. Its gestures and motions convince watchers that something unseeable actually exists. Once it is believed, it will exist as if it were a real thing. It is adept at conning people. It is said to be able to make walls appear out of thin air by miming them. If it is interrupted while miming, it will suddenly Doubleslap the offender with its broad hands."_

_-_

Prof. Oak smiled to himself as he close the pokedex. He took a deep relaxing breath and let it out slowly; enjoying the softness of the couch he was currently sitting on. Deliah suddenly came from the kitchen area, holding a small tea tray, with two cups of steaming tea, a kettle, and a small plate of crumpets. She giggled at the sight of Prof. Oak, who was almost asleep on the couch. She set the tray on the table in front of the couch and sat down next to him, causing him to start awake.

"Oh my, I'm sorry Deliah, I must have dozed off. Thank you for inviting me over by the way," he said.

"Oh don't fret Sammy. Besides it's my pleasure, after all it is an important day for you," Deliah replied.

'Sammy' Oak smiled gratefully and took a cup of tea, while handing a crumpet to Mr. Mime, who accepted it thankfully and ate it, careful not to get any crumbs on the carpet. Deliah was already drinking her tea slowly, her eyes gazing at the new trophy case on the wall above the fireplace, displaying all of Ash's achievements. There was the Orange League trophy, half of a Pokemon Contest Ribbon, and various other smaller trophies of small tournaments. Samuel Oak was about to begin drinking his tea himself when suddenly the pokedex on the table began beeping. Samuel picked it up and opened it, the screen showing a '' and an arrow at the edge of the screen, which indicated where the unknown presence was directed at.

"Forgive me Deliah but looks like there's something nearby that the pokedex doesn't recognize. I'll go check it out," he declared, setting down his tea and standing up.

"Be careful!" Deliah called after him.

Samuel Oak exited the house and noticed that the unknown thing was beginning to move. He climbed onto his bike at the fence and followed until he saw that the arrow was pointing straight ahead. He braked when he almost ran over a person lying on the middle of the path.

"Oh my!" Prof. Oak exclaimed as he got off his bike, putting it back into its capsule container.

The person on the ground was lying facedown, moving a little as if trying to crawl somewhere. The person had long flowing blonde hair with streaks of red and orange, indicating that it was possibly a girl. The supposed girl's clothes were burnt and ripped badly, her pale skin dark with bruises in places. Prof. Oak turned the person over and fell back in surprise. A girl with pale auburn eyes gazed at him in surprise, a horn sticking out from the middle of her forehead. The pokedex in Prof. Oak's hand stopped beeping and began speaking once more:

"_Rapidash, the Fire Horse Pokemon. Rapidash can usually be seen casually cantering in the fields and plains. However, when this pokemon turns serious, its fiery manes flare and blaze as it gallops its way up to around 200mph. Running at top speed, Rapidash can race as fast as a bullet train while ablaze. Very competitive, this pokemon will chase anything that moves fast in the hopes of racing it."_

Prof. Oak was stunned. The girl on the ground groaned and slowly began to sit up however her eyes bulged slightly and she hacked, coughing up blood onto the dry dirt path. Overcoming his shock, Prof. Oak picked up the girl and began to quickly, but carefully, make his way back to his Pokemon Lab on the hill nearby. He clambered up the steps as the girl gently grasped the collar of his white lab coat. Prof. Oak cried out in shock when his collar began to heat up, flames dancing around the girl's grip. A loud crashing came from the door of the lab and it opened violently, a raven haired teen with a red sweatband and white lab coat emerging from within. He gasped and began speaking at an incredible speed.

"Professor, what happened? Who's that? Is she hurt? Wh-…" he trailed off when he noticed the horn and the flames, his eyes wide with surprise. Nevertheless he opened the door wider and they quickly rushed inside. Once inside Prof. Oak asked Tracey, the teen from the door, to activate the Contaminant Tank and place her inside. Tracey nodded and rushed ahead, past the living section of the lab to the actual research section, where various machines and tables were surrounded by white walls and floor tiles. Against one wall was a large cylindrical tank, with various tubes and panels attached to the machine next to it. It was this that Prof. Oak walked over to while Tracey laid the girl down on a table. Prof. Oak fiddled with the now active controls of the machine and the front half of the tank slid aside, allowing entrance for even the largest of land-based humanoid pokemon. Tracey gripped the girls ruined jeans and quickly pulled them off, revealing red panties beneath them. He blushed but continued to undress her, unaware of the burns his fingers were receiving.

"Don't worry, we're trying to help you. You just need to trust us, okay?" Tracey said gently to the frightened girl as she struggled slightly.

"W-Who are you?" she asked, her voice quiet and strained.

"I'm Tracey, it's nice to meet you and all but we need you undressed and in the Containment Tank. We need to heal those injuries and take some scans," Tracey replied quickly.

The girl nodded and closed her eyes, losing consciousness. Tracey took hold of her top, missing its sleeves, and pulled it over her head and off of her. Face scarlet, Tracey unclasped her matching red bra and removed it quickly, trying to avert his eyes. He diverted his gaze by staring at a large, circular burn mark on the girl's firm, muscled abdomen. Finally he took off her shoes, sock and panties and lifted her off the table, noticing at last just how warm she was. It was like carrying an armload of hot coals and Tracey was glad to finally place her down inside the tank, lying curled up on the floor. Tracey stepped out and pulled a lever on the machine interface, closing the tank and sealing it with a whoosh. Prof. Oak began to sequence to heal something and from above, a pipe leading to the top of the tank, roofed by a flat cone-like lid, began pouring a watery green substance into the tank. The tank filled impressively quickly and soon the girl was floating in the middle of the tank, outstretched with her feet pointing to the ground.

"Right it's sealed and the fluid should heal her injuries in a few hours, now let's take those scans and find out just what she is," Tracey declared.

"Yes, yes. Let's get that done…" Prof. Oak replied, distracted.

"Is something wrong Professor?" Tracey asked.

"It's just that my new pokedex seems to have a glitch. When near the girl it displayed information for a Rapidash, but there aren't any nearby. The Rapidash out in the fields are too far away to be detected," Prof. Oak replied glumly.

"Maybe it's the girl… I mean look at these readings! Her average body temperature is around 70 degrees Celsius. Muscle structure is around five times denser than is average in a healthy human. She has a solid bone structure, not hollow bones. Also there some kind of extra organ here that's attached to the stomach. It's generating an incredible amount of heat. Plus that horn on her head…" Tracey exclaimed.

"That is awfully strange. I have a theory… she's part pokemon. Rapidash to be exact," Prof. Oak concluded.

"What would you call a person with pokemon DNA? Almost 45 of her DNA belongs to Rapidash and it's masterfully integrated into her human DNA," Tracey asked.

"I've heard rumours of Pokemorphs but I thought they were myths, just wild stories made up by bored travellers… but it must be true," Prof. Oak said more to himself than Tracey. "Look at her, she must be no older than 16. Her body is perfect, absolutely flawless, aside from the injuries. (This made Tracey blush heavily…) Also her legs nearly make up over half of her height."

"What's she doing here?" Tracey asked, averting his gaze from the naked teen in the tank.

"Honestly… I have no idea," Prof. Oak said, at a loss.

0o0o0o0o0o0

In a place unknown to all but around twenty people, a girl with cyan hair and red eyes stirred on the ground. She slowly cracked open an eye and looked around carefully. It was very dark and she could hear nothing at all. The air she breathed was stale and tasted artificial in her lungs. Gingerly getting to her feet, she realized that someone had undressed her. She noticed that the floor she stood on was cold and made of metal. She stained to move and found that she could not move her extra appendages. She touched her left wing and slowly reached up until she felt metal. Her wings were in a harness to stop them moving. A small tear trickled down her right eye and she sat down, ignoringthe fact that she was naked and alone in the dark. There was movement on her left and she tried to use her power to create an Ice Ball in her hand.

"Angel… i-it's me…" a small, slightly high pitched voice squeaked.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Angel demanded, now covering her modesty with both her arms as best she could.

There was a shuffling noise and Angel could barely make out the silhouette of another girl sitting next to her. Angel spotted something large shaped like a lightning bolt and noticed to long appendage coming from the person's head. Suddenly her memory returned to her and she remembered what had happened. She growled and raised a fist to punch the wall she was against, however something shot from the darkness and grabbed her wrist. It was warm and furry, like a cat's fur… or a mouse's.

"Pikachu?" Angel asked.

Suddenly there was light and Angel shielded her eyes from the intensity of it. Once the initial glare was gone she realised that she was against a window, shocked she once again tried to cover her breasts with one arm and her womanhood with the other. The girl next to her laughed quietly and Angel turned to face her as she spoke.

"There's no point, no one will see us," the girl said.

Angel was finally able to see properly and stood up, backing away from the girl, if she could be called a girl, sitting on the ground beside her. She was covered with fur, each hair about a centimetre long. Her main hair on her head was long, blonde and reached down to her lower back. She too, was naked, however she wasn't attempting to cover herself up like Angel was. Large, round, black eyes gazed wistfully at Angel, a small, triangular nose in the middle of her face instead of a human one. Her cheeks were bare of fur and bright red in colour. Emerging from the locks of hair on her head was a pair of rabbit-like ears, which had black fur at the end instead of yellow. From her behind was a long tail, shaped like a bolt of lightning, which was brownish at the base and yellow on the rest. This tail was around two metres long, and was lying next to large, yellow furred, three-toed feet. On the girl's back were two brown stripes, one above the other, crossing her furry back. Overall she had fur everywhere, apart from her cheeks. She had eyebrows, black fur above her eyes instead of yellow. Her lips were red and full, she had breasts, with hairless nipples standing out and she too had a vagina, hidden by fur. The girl stood up, stretching, and looked out the window, her gaze was sad and full of longing. Angel, now overcoming her shock, looked out and finally noticed just what was outside… nothing. Suddenly something came into view and Angel had to bite down a scream of fright. Outside the window she saw Earth, hanging in the blackness like a large blue marble. Angel could see the continents of Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh and even… Hoenn. Her home…

"We're in space… on, on a space station?" Angel said to herself.

Pikachu smirked.

"Yeah… I think we're gonna be away from home for a while," she replied.

Angel sat down on the ground heavily, her arms now by her side. Her breath was shallow and coming in short gasps. The new Pikachu sat down next to her, her tail reaching around Angel's back and resting on her shoulder. Angel took no notice and continued to stare at Earth out of the large, full wall window. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes; however Pikachu's tail masterfully wiped them away. Angel smiled slightly and put her arms around the pokemorph next to her, revelling in how soft her fur was and how warm she was to touch. Pikachu smiled and put an arm around Angel's shoulder.

"We're gonna be here for a while, but while we are here we need to work together. The others will come for us, just you wait and see."

**Well that's the conclusion of this chapter, what do you think? I know, shocked and amazed, but it's just a large plot twist. Now the next few chapters will be about what each person's doing while separated. Angel and Pikachu's life aboard the obviously Team Rocket Space Station, Rebekah's life in Pallet Town and just where everyone else has ended up and how they're gonna find each other. How will they cope with being alone, will they meet again? Will they find a way to reach Angel and Pikachu? All of this will be in the space across two and a half years, so each character will become older, more mature, with new pokemon and skills. And since most of them will now be about 17 years old I can now finally start adding lemons without seeming like a sick person who likes underage sex! Anyways this is again my l****ongest chapter with around 10, 200 words including this bit and the start's bold blog of what I say.**

**Angel: Save me!!!**

**Pikachu: Get me some clothes!!!**

**Jake: Where am I?**

**Rebekah: I'm in a fucking tank! Get me out!**

**Gary: I knew my vision was bad but I can't see anything right now.**

**Mizu: Open your eyes.**

**Ash: Dammit, where are you Pikachu!?!**

**May: Dammit, where are you Ash!?!**


	27. Chapter 27: Sisters in Arms

**Dark Angel**

**Whoo, bet you didn't see that coming! Anyways this chapter is all about Angel and Pikachu's life in general for the next two years. There'll be parts ****along the lines of Week 1: and what happens in said week, then skipping ahead to Week 9: and again what happens, but I'll be using numbered days. Anyways the uniform for the group's gonna be made when the seven on Earth meet back up and prepare to save Angel and Pikachu. I know, why does it take two years? Answer: They need to get something that'll get them in space in one piece.**

**Luffy: Yeah! I found One Piece!**

**Shoots Luffy several times and kicks him out the window**

* * *

**Chapter 27: Angel and Pikachu – Sisters in Arms**

_Day 1: The work begins…_

Angel awoke with a start, her breath heavy and her vision blurred. She had been having yet another nightmare, her sleep plagued with images of explosive decompression or any amount of horrible and vile things that could happen when there is no one to rely on but yourself. Next to her, Pikachu slept soundly, curled up on the metal floor, her fur easily keeping her warm in the chilled environment. Angel stood, deciding to take a look around the room they were in. It was large and rectangular, around 10 metres by 6. There was nothing around and every surface was polished to a high shine. There were two doors, one of them obviously leading to the rest of the station. Angel walked over to the one on her left however there were no door handles of knobs she could see and it would not open when she approached. _'This door must lead to the rest of the facility…' _Angel thought analytically.

"You awake then?" Pikachu asked.

Angel jumped and turned, noticing that Pikachu was right behind her. Angel suddenly began to feel insecure and a wave of emotion washed over her. She felt like hiding in a corner of the room and crying in despair however she fought back her emotions and tried to keep control of herself. Pikachu watched her with interest, her sensitive nose smelling her fear and lack of self-confidence. Pikachu grew bored of the inactivity and walked to the door on the right, this one sliding open when she approached. The room beyond was tiny, like a cupboard more than anything else. Built along shoulder level was a rail oing across the cupboard and there were two bundles hanging from it by little hooks. Pikachu took out one of the bundles as Angel looked on. The bundle was actually a black, plastic bag and there was a thunderbolt embossed on one side of it. Pikachu shrugged and pulled it open as Angel retrieved the other bag, wondering what was contained in them.

"Hey, there's some clothes in this one!" Pikachu exclaimed.

"And in this one… this bag has a snowflake on it… I suppose that means it's meant for me and the other is yours?" Angel asked.

"I guess…" Pikachu replied with a shrug of her furry shoulders.

Angel opened her bag and emptied the contents on the floor, sifting through them until she found what she was looking for. She was disappointed at the type of clothes they were. There was a black sports bra and sports shorts, which barely reached her mid thighs. However it was better than nothing and she donned the clothing as quickly as she could, noticing that Pikachu was not doing the same. Pikachu gave Angel a confused look.

"What are these for exactly?" she asked, indicating the clothes.

"They're for covering yourself up and keeping warm," Angel answered quickly.

"Why? I'm warm enough and my fur keeps me covered…" Pikachu said.

"Well put them on anyway… hey yours are different to mine!" Angel exclaimed.

Pikachu had the same style of clothing however hers seemed to be made of latex rather than the synthetic material that Angel's were comprised of. Pikachu did as Angel directed and put the clothes on, then going through the rest of her pile. Pikachu picked up a belt of some kind, with pouches all around it and gave it a careful sniff. Angel noticed that she too had a belt and went through the pouches. One had miniaturized pokeballs of some kind, as these were black and red instead of the normal pokeballs. Another pouch had a small amount of potions and revives, along with a large amount of syringes with strange coloured liquids in them and the third pouch had some kind of radio device. Angel took it out and examined it closely. It was small, rectangular and black with a light blue stripe down both sides. There were a few holes in both ends and a large button on one side that could be pressed in. Angel pressed it experimentally.

"_Hey this thing works…"_

Angel jumped as the device in her hand emitted a voice. Behind her Pikachu was speaking into her hand-held COM link, noticing that Angel's spoke in time with her. Angel realized what the device's function was pretty quickly and put it back into its pouch. The fourth and final pouch contained a strange wooden handle, around 15cm long. It looked like the handle of a sword but there was no blade or hand guard on it. Angel looked at the design on the side of the handle, seeing an engraved Articuno using an Ice Beam towards where the blade should be. The detail was astonishing…

"Hmm, interesting. Well best put these on as well, they might do us some good," Angel informed Pikachu.

Pikachu nodded quickly, her ears flapping slightly. Angel stopped and stared at her ears for a few seconds, her cheeks slightly red. _'That was soo cute!' _she thought. Suddenly she shook herself and clipped her belt roughly around her waist, trying to avoid looking at Pikachu, who was holding a large combat knife in her left hand. Angel looked again and jumped back when Pikachu turned towards her, the knife looking particularly dangerous with the serrated edge on the side of the blade intended to face the holder. The tip curved up slightly and the main blade looked wicked sharp, being around 15cm long and looking sharp enough to cut a hair down its length. Pikachu blinked and stuffed the knife into a sheath attached to the back of her belt, the knife sliding in sideways, for easy access.

"Soooo… we get a talker, a handle, a claw, and some survival stuffs. Looks like these belts include a grabber of some kind," she said, her voice still rather squeaky, as if she hadn't used it in a while, as well as her grammar being terrible. Angel giggled quietly, realizing that Pikachu mustn't have been able to speak English for too long.

She then noticed the coil of wire rolled up on her left hip and uncoiled it. It was a kind of metal rope, made of twisting wires wrapped up together. At the end was a rather small, three clawed head. It looked rather like a toy but Angel was not going to start underestimating anything around here. Her wings were beginning to get cramped in the harness underneath the sports bra and Angel wished someone would come in and take it off, as in the harness. Almost miraculously, like on command the left-hand door slid open and a man with brown hair and wild green eyes stepped inside. Angel reacted immediately and leapt forward, attempting to kick the jaw of the person. Said person simply stepped back and grabbed her foot as it sliced through the air, causing Angel to fall back and hit the deck.

"Now, now. That's not very nice you know," the man said condescendingly.

"You bastard! Why are we here? What sick plans do you have for us?" Angel screamed, now on her back on the floor.

"Simple. You are our property and we have reclaimed you. As for the rodent, she belongs to us now, not her previous master." The man explained.

There was a bang and a shuddering noise at those words and a growling noise from behind Angel. She noticed Pikachu's combat knife sticking out of the door frame, an inch or two right, from the man's head. Angel craned her neck and spotted Pikachu, her hand still outstretched in the throwing motion. Her eyes were glazed over in anger, sparks jolting along her arms and sparking from her cheeks. Angel kicked the man in the shins, breaking herself free and rolling away as Pikachu charged at him, electricity crackling around her fingers as she prepared to punch him right in the face. The man smirked and pulled a small black hand-held device from his pocket. He raised the device at Pikachu and pressed a button on it, a red light blinking on at its end. Pikachu froze, her eyes clouding over, before she then collapsed to the ground, screaming in pain. Angel had no idea what was happening and struggled to break her wings free, noticing that the top she had on was built for her wings to stick out of the back. The harness was strong but Angel's willpower was stronger and with a snapping sound, her wings unfurled from their prison, scattering ice particles around the large room.

"Who are you?!" Angel yelled.

This shout startled the man into stopping his mechanical assault on Pikachu. Angel scowled fiercely, her wings waving through the air dangerously. After a few minutes Pikachu finally stopped screaming and lay on her stomach, panting for breath, her sports clothes already soaked with sweat.

"My name… is Michael Roscoe," the man, now known as Michael, replied.

Angel blinked and her hand jumped up to her neck, where her pendant usually hung, with her picture of Paul in it. However it was missing and Angel failed to hold back her tears this time. They silently trickled down her face, wetting her cool cheeks. Michael grinned and pocketed the remote that had tortured Pikachu.

"Right then, now that I have your attention, I shall go over today's schedule. You are both to report to the Training Room and spend at least six hours there exercising. Next will be the Battle Simulation for two hours. Then you'll eat a meal with the others in the Galley for one hour. After that is Stealth and Espionage Training for four hours. You will then sleep in here for eight hours and have 3 hours of leisure time to be spent in this room or in one of the recreational facilities available. Begin the same schedule again tomorrow and eventually you will be given extra assignments to further improve your skill, am I understood?" Michael iterated.

Angel nodded mutely, as Pikachu slowly started to get back to her feet. Michael turned to leave, however he reached into his pocket and turned the remote on Pikachu one more time, causing her to crash to the ground again in fresh waves of pain. He turned completely and exited the room, leaving Angel quivering with anger, her tears freezing solid and bursting off her face. She turned away from the door and heard a fully sobbing Pikachu. Angel rushed over to her fallen friend and turned her onto her back. Pikachu's fur was damp with sweat and her brow was furrowed, her eyes clenched shut as she attempted to overcome the pain holding her down. Angel gently placed a hand on her breast, directly over her heart. It was beating extremely fast and Angel began to worry about her. Pikachu seemed to calm down at her touch however and soon she was able to quieten down. She whimpered quietly as Angel lifted her until she was sitting, leaning back on Angel's shoulder.

"Oooooh… Remind me to get that remote and shove it up his ass when I next see him," Pikachu groaned.

"It would be my pleasure," Angel replied with a small chuckle.

"Now what?" Pikachu asked, standing up.

Angel stood up as well, noticing that Pikachu towered over her. If Angel had a good eye for size she would say that Pikachu was around 6" 10'. This made her just over two metres tall and Angel wondered to herself just how many modifications Team Rocket had made to her DNA. It was obvious that they had improved her muscle tone as well as her height, judging by the six-pack on her abdomen and her muscular legs. Angel stared for a few seconds, thoroughly amazed at the difference in appearance Pikachu had. She blinked and turned away again, her cheeks reddening slightly.

"Well I guess we'd better do as they say for now," Angel answered to Pikachu's unanswered query.

Pikachu nodded and walked over to the door, her steps short and slow, as though she was still trying to get the hang of walking with human-ish feet. Angel caught up to her and grabbed her arm, helping her along to the door, which now opened upon their approach and they walked through it. They emerged through the doorway into a long, metal corridor whose length was unknown as neither end could been seen by either girl. Angel observed the floor, which had coloured lines along it. Each line had a label and Angel figured that she and Pikachu could find their way to the Training Room by following it along the floor. An arrow on the red line pointed to the left and the words "Training Room" were printed in a blank box on the line itself.

"That's useful…" Angel remarked. "Follow me Pikachu… wait hold on."

"Yah?" Pikachu asked.

"Do you have a name? A real name, I mean?" Angel asked, suddenly curious.

"Pikachu mummies call all their spawn 'Rat' until they earn some honour in either combat or with the helping of the nest," Pikachu explained. "I earned my name in a rather unusual way…"

"What happened?" Angel asked, now intrigued.

"Well I was foraging some pinky berries for my nest… I think Ash called them Pecha Berries. Anyway a Wurmple wanted them too and wouldn't go without claiming some for itself, so we got into a fight. I was only 3 moons old at the time so I couldn't fight that well since I was only a Pichu. So I got an idea when the Wurmple knocked down a pokey stick… sorry I mean, a pointy stick. I used it like a Sneasel's claw and beat back the Wurmple. A nest elder saw all this and decided that I had gained great honour for my victory at such smallness… I was named 'Sabre' thereafter," Pikachu explained. "That, Angel… is my name."

"Alright then… Sabre. Let's get going," Angel declared, pointing the way forward.

The two girls set off at a leisurely pace and walked side by side, ignoring any Rocket that happened to walk past. In her mind, Angel was awed by such an insight into the cultural society of a Pikachu and vowed to learn as much as possible about them as a species so that she could better understand Sabre. Sabre herself was wondering if this flying tin can had any pinky berries on it and planned on eating a lot when they got dinner. After a left turn down a hallway, Angel and Sabre came to a door marked "Fitness Suite" and Angel pressed a green button next to the door. It slid open with a 'whoosh' and they found themselves staring at the largest collection of training equipment they had ever laid eyes on. Angel herself hadn't ever really gone to the gym, opting to train her body outdoors and so most of the equipment was alien to her.

_Day 5__2: Getting the hang of it…_

Angel smirked as she lifted the 200lb barbell back onto its rack and set it down easily, as if it were a child's toy. Sabre had just finished with a punching bag on the other side of the suite and was busily lifting it off the floor, having burst her third one off its hinges. She hefted the now ruined bag into a corner and walked over to the slightly sweating Angel, giving her a high-five. She grinned, a pair of pearly white fangs biting over her other teeth. She looked forward to the next time she could hammer something as hard as she could without getting zapped by the Remote again. She had been forced to endure a full five minutes of the torture after breaking a Rocket's back when she slammed him into a wall with one hand, because he had slapped her ass as she walked past, the previous week.

"So we need to go to the Battle Simulator again?" Angel asked.

"Yah. It's always fun in there…" Sabre exclaimed.

Angel's eyes softened at Sabre's words. They were having fun… while they were prisoners being tortured in a nigh-impregnable floating fortress they were having fun. Angel smirked again, thinking at how it would weaken the Rocket Morale when they found out that Angel and Sabre were in high spirits. Sabre's tail flickered impatiently and she dragged Angel through the grey door on the northern end of the suite. Through the door they stood in the centre of a box-like room with circular tiles set all over the walls and floor. These tiles created artificial Psychic power to simulate a battle for Angel and Sabre to fight in.

"What kind of baddie do you think we'll crash next?" Sabre asked.

Angel chuckled at her unique choice of words.

"I dunno but it better be tougher than that Onix last time," she replied cockily.

The room darkened and suddenly Angel and Sabre were standing in two different environments, separated by a Barrier. This split the girls apart from each other and ensured that they'd be against a single foe, one on one. Angel was in a cave like setting and something was coming towards her, hidden in the shadows. Thankfully the Barrier allowed sound and light through, meaning Angel could hear Sabre talking to her.

"Must be some kind of Ghost or Ground type, given the setting. Mine must be a Water or Ground type because of this stick-field," she called.

"You mean a swamp?" Angel asked.

"That's what I said!" Sabre laughed, jumping above a swipe from a Swampert that had just appeared.

Angel grinned and powered up her Water Pulse, using its light to illuminate ahead. She was almost able to make out what was ahead when a large boulder suddenly shot from the darkness. Angel easily dived to the left, landing on her hands and continuing sideways, flipping to her feet. The shadow moved again and Angel shot an Ice Beam at the source, striking something. Being reckless, Angel charged forward and lit her hands up with a pair of Ice Balls. Without the light from her Water Pulse though, she wasn't able to see as well and she almost tripped over the stalactite she had frozen. Angel cursed and looked around, trying to find her prey through the gloom of the cave. Suddenly she got an idea.

"Hey Sabre, I need a light!" Angel called.

"Coming up!" Sabre replied.

Sabre's yellow coat began glistening brightly, emitting a soft light. With a quick jolt of energy across her body, Sabre charged the light until a blinding Flash was produced, bathing both environments in a nice yellow glow. With a source of light, Angel was easily able to pick out the cave's debris and dodge them as she searched around. Sabre was fighting hand to hand with her Swampert, Electric attacks having no effect at all, and she seemed to have the upper hand, nimbly dodging the Swampert's swipes at her and delivering hard hits to its head and stomach. Angel scanned the perimeter around her but couldn't see the pokemon she was supposed to be fighting. She felt the ground under her feet begin shaking and took into the air, being careful to avoid the stalagmites hanging from the ceiling above. From under her, where she used to be standing, a large, iron-grey and red pokemon burst from underground with a roar. There was a long and sharp drill-like appendage spinning on its snout but Angel didn't recognize the species. It was around 7" 10' and looked a lot like a heavily armoured Rhydon. It had the tradition drill on its snout with a smaller, plain horn above it. Its head was protected by rounded red plates like a helmet and these plates went down its back to encircle its stomach. It was slightly rotund and walked on short, stocky legs while a long, heavy looking tail dragged along behind it, the end looking like a large boulder much like the ancient Ankylosaurus Pokemon. However the main features were its arms… they were double ended, the elbows coming away from the joint and extending backwards with another red plate protecting the joint. The hand was three fingered with grey, stubby looking rocks and there were large holes in the centre of its palm. It also had more red plates protecting its shoulders, knees and groin area, the rest of the pokemon's tough rock body was an dull iron-grey colour. Angel was shocked by the strange pokemon and therefore wasn't quick enough to dodge the rock it blew out of the hole in its palm, like a cannonball. The rock impacted with Angel's shoulder and she cried out as the bone broke in two, rendering her left arm useless. She fell from the air as her wings gave way; the pain was too great to concentrate on flying. The Rhydon-like pokemon huffed and gave a grating sound like a gravely laugh. Angel frowned and focused on her pain, allowing it to control her movements. She awkwardly got to her feet and launched a Water Pulse at the pokemon, using her good arm. The blast created a dust screen which Angel used to hide her escape to behind a large boulder. Once there, she gripped her right shoulder and used her Ice powers to freeze it, numbing the pain and preventing any swelling.

"Angel! Are you alright?" Sabre called, kicking the Swampert onto its back.

"Just peachy! I broke my shoulder… hurts like a bitch!" Angel called back, sarcasm dripping from her first words.

"Oooh touchy! Anyways I'm almost done, you need any help? This barrier is breakable," Sabre called again.

"Nah, I can handle this ugly rock. But thanks for offering; I'll split my dessert with you at break if you like!" Angel answered.

There was the sound of a 'Yas!' as Pikachu pumped her fist into the air, kicking her unconscious enemy one more time before exiting the room and heading towards the shower area, set near the Training Room. Angel watched her go and realized that her shouting will have alerted whatever it was she was fighting as to where she was located. There was a powerful whirring sound from behind her and she noticed a crack form in the boulder against her back. She leapt out of the way just in time, any later and the creature's fist would have knocked her head clean off her shoulders.

"Fuck! This thing's a tenacious creature… better end this now if I don't want to get hurt anymore than I am now," Angel said to herself, diving to the side as a rock catapulted towards her.

Angel tucked herself in and rolled over, springing herself to her feet. She glanced at her now dirty wings and realized that they would just get in the way from the moment. She concentrated and they began to glow a faint pink colour, disappearing from sight. Angel smiled at the 'gift' Jake had given her nearly a week ago. She learned by accident that the wings she received were made of cells from Jake, fused to her own and so had semi-polymorphic and replicating abilities. However all they seemed capable of was being absorbed into her back and allowing her unrestricted movement they would otherwise cause. Angel smiled warmly to herself, noticing that for once she looked almost perfectly normal, that now she might be able to fit in. Then she remembered the Rock-type she was fighting and ducked, its tail swinging over her head and brushing past her messy hair. She literally felt her life flash past and jumped back, springing off one foot and twisting back, hitting one hand on the ground and pushing, sliding herself backwards across the earth in one move. She felt herself slow and gripped the earth under her fingertips and fell back, landing in a crouched position on her feet. Her right arm was useless and Angel needed all the help she could get for this last attack. She slipped her left hand into her utility belt and whipped out one of the one-use syringes. She and Sabre had found out what they were a few days ago while training. The syringes were filled with stimulants that increased specific statistics, such as Speed, Attack, Defense and the Special stats. Angel held an X-Spec in her hand and injected it quickly into her leg, feeling the stimulant increase her adrenaline flow and pump more power into the muscles that controlled her usage of Elemental attacks. She felt the power flooding to her fingertips and opened her hand out towards the tank-like pokemon, her fingers channelling the elemental energy to a point just in front of her palm, a small sphere of ice-blue forming. Unable to resist the urge to quote one of her favourite movies Angel called out to the pokemon she was facing with a grin on her face:

"Yippee-kai-ay motherfucker!"

She unleashed her Ice Beam at 150 efficiency and the Beam drilled its way into the pokemon's thick red-plated hide, freezing the plates and causing them to crack. The impact area groaned and, what a great shattering sound, the Ice Beam burst straight through the pokemon and blew its way out of the back of the victim. The pokemon roared in protest and Angel cut off the attack, watching in triumph as the thing fell to its knees and collapsed forward, clearly and utterly dead. The area around Angel began to shimmer as the projections vanished, leaving Angel in the room of circular tiles. However, the dead pokemon remained and Angel glanced at it in confusion… until the horrible truth hit her harder than a boulder shot from its arm.

"That thing's real!!!" Angel cried in shock.

She fell to her knees, her body numb with disgust at her actions. She had murdered a real, living pokemon in cold blood, without remorse. She tried to reason that she hadn't known that it was real, that it was a projection like the rest of the environment she had been in moments before. Angel felt tears began to well up in her eyes but she fought them off, pushing her feelings back until she was in control again. She stood shakily and fought the urge to retch as the pokemon's red blood slowly pooled out around its corpse. She turned to leave however a sound stopped her. She heard clapping… long, slow, almost sarcastic clapping. She turned with rage in her eyes towards none other than Michael Roscoe, the boy she had thought she was trying to rescue from Team Rocket.

"Well done Angel, impressive as always… though this was one of my best Rhyperior," he said calmly.

"Your best what?" Angel asked, confused.

"This was a Rhyperior, the evolved form of Rhydon. Its species' was exclusively found in the Sinnoh Region, just beyond Hoenn however we have a large amount of imported pokemon on this station. We thought you could use practice against a live foe, but we didn't expect you to kill it so thoroughly… nice work," Michael replied.

"You sicken me. I came looking for you to rescue you but here you are, eating from Team Rocket's hand like an obedient dog! Your father would have been ashamed!!!" Angel shouted, her anger welling over.

Michael's eyes darkened dangerously and he pulled out the Remote from his pocket. He pointed it straight at Angel's heart and activated the device. Angel immediately spasmed in pain and fell onto her back, clutching her chest near where her heart was located in agony, as it burned with the pain of a thousand piercing knives. Michael smirked and switched the Remote off, allowing Angel to lie on the ground, spread-eagled, and panting hard as she forced oxygen into her flaming lungs. She wiped the sweat from her brow and sat up slowly; giving Michael the dirtiest look she could muster. Michael just snorted and gave a look of disdain in response.

"I have no father! And you'd do well to show more respect. You are nothing to me and I would kill you without a second thought if you weren't so valuable to Giovanni!" he roared in her face, flecking her cheeks with saliva.

Michael turned to storm away, however Angel's voice stopped him.

"He was a good man. He saved me from the torture you are now putting me through… I-I loved him in a way I don't understand, but you… you're nothing like him! What happened to you?" Angel said, her voice strained as she clutched her chest in the fading pain.

Michael seemed to seethe in anger for a moment but it passed and his shoulders sagged, he sighed in something like resignation and turned back to Angel. He grabbed her left hand and hauled her to her feet, laying his hand onto her shoulder to steady her.

"You know… when I first saw you, in that tank in the mountains… I felt pity. But my family came first and I wanted to keep my parents safe, I couldn't help you, we could be killed for interfering with Team Rocket's plans. But my dad just couldn't let it go, he had to let you out and get himself killed! It's because of you I don't have a father and my mother died of a broken heart soon after! I lost my parents because of you and I want nothing more than to make you feel how I felt then. I was so helpless, pained… alone. You can't imagine how I felt as I was left, orphaned, and unable to have anyone but Team Rocket care for me. I once tried to escape but they got me back, however an old man saw it and reported it to the police, who then sent out a notice that I had been kidnapped. I watched your exploits from orbital satellite cameras as you destroyed Team's Magma and Aqua, saved citizens from accidents and generally drew too much attention to yourself. It sickened me that you were doing what I wanted to do… protect people, when you were the one that killed my family!" he finished, his voice echoing loudly around the empty room.

Angel bowed her head and made a silent prayer to Paul, who had risked his everything just to help a complete stranger… and to Michael, who was misguided, but Angel could tell that there was good in him. She lifted her face to look in his eyes, tears leaking from her own. Without warning or hesitation, she stepped forward, closer to him and embraced him in a tight hug, crying freely into his shoulder. Michael almost pushed her off him but stopped and relaxed, trying to sort out the wave of emotions battling inside of him.

"Oh Michael… I'm so sorry that your parents died… If I could I'd turn back time and try to save them, they didn't need to set me free. I might've escaped on my own… but what your father did was very brave and noble. He helped a complete stranger out of the kindness of his heart. You can do the same… you can help others, but you can't do it like this. You need to let go of the past… you need to look towards your future," Angel said thickly, her nose blocked up with gung, causing her to sniff loudly.

Michael laughed bitterly and held Angel away from him, eyeing her as if her existence may be faked. However she was real enough and Michael sighed deeply.

"I'm sorry I've been such a jerk to you Angel… and to Sabre. I'm not ready to forgive you yet but I can understand what you're trying to say. But you can't be set free, we're in space. Besides I'd be murdered if I helped you so I'm sorry but I can't get involved… you're on your own," he said sadly.

Michael released Angel and turned away from her, unwilling to look her in the eye. He began walking away, towards the door but stopped and smiled at Angel briefly, before leaving.

_Day 473: What's there to do now?_

Angel sat down heavily on her bed and leaned back into her pillow, stretching and yawning loudly. Sabre gave her an annoyed glance and returned her eyes to the book she was trying to read. It had been over a year since they had been brought to this floating fortress orbiting the Earth and Angel was bored as a rock. She had grown quite a bit in the past months, now reaching about 6" 5' in height. Her cyan, triple spiked hair was messy but clean, despite the fact that she rarely used the female shower room. It reached the back of her waist easily and floated like snow on a light wind whenever she moved. Sabre too had grown a little but not by much, she was tall enough already for Angel's taste. She now had to duck under door to stop from banging her head into the top of the doorframe. Her tail had grown a good foot longer and she was able to wrap it around her waist twice, like a fluffy yellow belt. Both she and Angel now had proper clothes to wear after the sports clothes were eventually ruined through constant use and cleaning. Angel wore a long black trenchcoat, her favourite type of coat to wear, made of leather. Underneath was a baby blue strapless tube top, designed to be able to stretch out of the way when she brought her wings out from her back. She also wore long, wide cuffed leather trousers and black combat boots with steel toe caps. Sabre had chosen similar attire after she learned that leather was a good resistor of electricity, choosing almost the same outfit as Angel but without the jacket. Plus her tube top had straps and was an electric yellow with a black lightning bolt on the front. Sabre looked up from her book to Angel again, noticing her friend was being rather quiet.

"Is something wrong, friend Angel?" she asked.

"No… I'm just bored; this place has no life to it. It's always the same hallway, the same training area. It's no where near as good as travelling the countryside," Angel replied.

"Ah yes, back on Earth. What are we going to do when we get there if we're able to escape… or if our friends rescue us?" Sabre added hopefully.

Ash grunted and rolled onto her side, facing Sabre.

"You really think they'll come and rescue us? Come on Sabre, it's been over a year! I mean what are we gonna do, jump out the airlock? You'd better be able to hold your breath it's a long way down," she answered coldly.

Sabre's ears drooped down to the sides of her head and she lay down on the bed she had been sitting on, the book lying forgotten on its front, open to keep from losing the page. Angel stared out the window and watched as the sun peeked out from behind the Earth, bathing a part of it in a brilliant gleam, reflecting on the vast oceans and illuminating the clouds. The sights of Earth, so close but so unreachable, always made Angel want to go mad with anger but she kept herself in check. Maybe Jake and the other would rescue them… maybe they were waiting for the opportune moment. Angel's heart warmed a little as her hope grew a bit and she watched as the sun rose on Kanto, bringing with it a new day.

"So what are we gonna do next? I've mastered the Stealth and Assassination parts of the programme… maybe we should start on Demolitions? I'm very fond of explosions," Sabre said, her mouth drooling at the thought of large pyrotechnically impressive explosions.

"Yeah I know what you mean; I've mastered over five martial arts now and my Ice Powers have never been stronger… one thing I've noticed though, you always call out the name of your attacks… why is that?" Angel asked.

"Knowing the name and not knowing the name of your attack can make a large difference in their effectiveness. A name means the attack has a purpose and means that it will become better suited to accomplishing that purpose. Like my Thundercrash technique," Sabre said, lightly clapping her hands together. "Its name gives it a specific purpose and so increases its power."

Angel grinned and remembered the effect of her technique when she first thought up of it, while learning about lightning in the Physics class. Sabre had broken several bones and severely burnt her hands but she recovered and eventually mastered the new attack, making it one of her most powerful techniques. Angel herself had made many techniques but she never thought of naming them. She looked at her fingers and thought hard, thinking of names for her original techniques.

"Ice Needle…" she whispered.

As if by command her fingertips became covered in ice, becoming very pointy and sharp. Unconsciously Angel let the attack go and the ice tips on her fingers shot off, imbedding themselves in the ceiling above her bed. Angel blinked and looked at the damage. The ice needles had punched their way into the metal ceiling and almost through the inner plating of the station. Angel grimaced and blocked the damage up with some NeverMeltIce from her hands. That was the seventh patch of the room Angel had needed to fix, indicated by the six other patches of ice on the floor and walls. Angel shrugged to herself and pulled the wooden handle from her belt, looking at it once more. She still had not managed to decipher a purpose to it yet and kept it safe encase it was important. Sabre was now sharpening her combat knife on a piece of sandstone, still lying down. She hummed a tune, while she worked her eyes unfocused, and a small smile played on her lips. Angel caught onto the tune and remembered the words of the old song that used to play on radios frequently a year or two ago. Angel closed her eyes and immersed herswelf in the song, words coming to her mind and unconsciously flowing off her tongue.

_Rising up, back on the streets__,  
Took my time, took my chances,_

_Went the distance now am back on my feet,_

_Just a man and his will to survive._

_So many times, it happens too fast,_

_You change your passion for glory,_

_Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past,_

_You must fight just to keep them alive… _

_It's the Eye of the Tiger; it's the cream of the fight,_

_Rising up to the challenge of our rivals,_

_And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night,_

_And he's w__atching most always the Eye of the Tiger._

Angel's eyes snapped open when she realized that Sabre had stopped humming. Angel blushed as Sabre gave her a strange look, as if she was seeing Angel for the first time… or rather as if she was seeing a new side of Angel.

"What?" Angel snapped defensively.

"You… you can sing," Sabre said, her voice laced with surprise.

"I… I can?" Angel asked, now the one to be surprised.

"You sing, really well!" Sabre answered, her voice speeding up with excitement. "We could start singing! I know loads of songs!"

Angel quirked an eyebrow at Sabre and she mentally snickered at what she was about to say.

"Ms. Sabre, please contain your exuberance."

Sabre blinked as if to say 'Whaaaaaat?'

"It means your happiness… I think. Or your excitement, something like that!" Angel muttered.

"Oh! I see… nah I like my exuberance," Sabre replied cheekily.

She then burst into song:

I've been watching!  
I've been waiting!  
In the shadows all my time!  
I've been searching!  
I've been living!  
For tomorrows all my life!

In the shadows!

In the shadows!!

They say,  
That I must learn to kill before I can feel safe,  
But I,  
I rather kill myself then turn into their slave,  
Sometimes,  
I feel that I should go and play with the thunder,  
Somehow,  
I just don't wanna stay and wait for a wonder,

I've been watching!!  
I've been waiting!!  
In the shadows all my time!!  
I've been searching!!  
I've been living!!  
For tomorrows all my life!!

Lately I been walking, walking in circles, watching, waiting for something,  
Feel me touch me heal me, come take me higher,

I've been watching!  
I've been waiting!  
In the shadows all my time!  
I've been searching!  
I've been living!  
For tomorrows all my life,  
I've been watching!!!  
I've been waiting!!!  
I've been searching!!!  
I've been living for tomorrows!

In the shadows!

When Sabre finished Angel was left speechless. Sabre had sung the song perfectly, her voice rising and falling in tune to what the song would've sounded like if they had the means to play it. Angel gave her a questioning look but Sabre had curled up, yawning quietly and was beginning to fall asleep. However Angel was not tired and looked again at her handle, still in her right hand. An answer was at the edge of her thoughts but she couldn't reach it, it was too hazy to make out. Angel began to sing a song herself in her head.

_You're cruel, devise,_

_Your blood, like ice……_

Angel suddenly stopped and looked at the handle again, nearly slapping herself for not realizing. She got up off her bed and ignored Sabre's protests as she jogged quickly to the biggest space in the room, her footfalls echoing on the solid floor. Bristling with excitement, Angel held the handle in front of her and began gather the power in her hand necessary for an Ice Beam. She felt a sudden cold sweep across her palm and watched as the handle began to glow an icy white. She pushed in some more power and the blade-end of the handle began to spark with energy, as if trying to force something out. Angel gave it one more push and a long tongue of icy energy burst from the end of the handle and trailed to the floor, pooling at her feet. Angel recognized the configuration as that of a whip and pulled some energy from it, watching as the whip shortened until it was just the right size. With an experimental flick of the wrist, Angel's whip snapped against the ground in front of her feet and froze the plating solid, also leaving a frosty slash in the metal. Angel grinned and released the energy, however instead of vanishing; it shot from her handle like a pistol, the energy freezing the feet end of Sabre's bed. Sabre got up and gave Angel a dirty look.

"Am trying to sweeeep!" she moaned.

Angel giggled at the near pathetic-ness and poor grammar of her friend and jumped to her bed, lying down. Meanwhile, Sabre grumbled about clean clothes and got back up, sitting on the edge of her bed. She gave the basket in the far corner of the room a death glare and began to strip down, giving Angel annoyed glances now and again. Angel looked away, embarrassed by her friend's refusal to wear a bra or panties. Sabre also slept nude, not wearing pyjamas or a nightie. Angel herself had no pyjamas and since they had a limited wardrobe, Angel wore one of Sabre's spare tops, noting how it almost reached her knees. Angel decided to change into her sleepwear as well and began taking her top off. Sabre was already back into her bed, under the covers thankfully, as her dirty clothes were now in the basket that was taken to the cleaners during the day. Angel had once been past that section with all the washing machines, tumble driers and dishwashers. The old woman who worked them was strict and a lot tougher than she looked as Angel learned the hard way, being bashed around the head with the old woman's walking stick. However Angel considered the old hag to be one of her close friends, as her advice and counsel was always of great help. Angel smiled and rolled her dirty clothes into a large ball and tossed them from her side of the room, right into the laundry basket at the other side, in one large, careless motion. She grinned and mentally added a point to her score against Sabre and then she curled up, looking out of the window from her bed. The station was now orbiting the dark side of Earth in a geosynchronous orbit, giving the impression of day and night to those onboard. Angel sighed as she thought of what Jake and her other friends would look like after two and a half long years.

What she didn't know was that she was about to find out. Had Angel been paying attention she would have noticed a tiny, bright flash of light from one of Earth's many continents. Angel lay back in her bed, looking at the plated ceiling with a sad look in her eyes. She felt herself drifting to sleep but before the darkness could claim her there was a loud thump, shaking the room she was in. Sabre awoke with a start, looking around wildly and spotting Angel. Angel herself was surprised and wondered what was happening. Before they could speak there was a loud fizzing sound from above them and Angel got the feeling she was to look out the window. All she saw was Earth and the remains of the Millennium Comet. She smirked as she remembered what happened to it.

_Flashback, flashback, flashback_

_Angel gasped as the airlock door on the small shuttle opened, giving her a magnificent view of Earth and the space around her. Her breath misted up the visor in front of her face and the environmental suit she wore protected her from the hard vacuum. Ahead of her was a glowing rock she was told was called the 'Millennium Comet'. She watched as it twisted through space, hurtling away from Earth at a slow speed. Angel remembered that it was given its name because it appeared in Earth's sky for one week every thousand years. Angel was not lucky enough to have seen it from Earth but she was seeing what others couldn't__. She heard a whine as the radio link in her helmet came to life._

"_Angel, are you close enough to the target?" Sabre asked._

"_Yep, it's right in front of me!" she replied._

_Angel felt a small tug and then a strange sense of vertigo overcame her. She turned her head slightly and saw, with horror that the anchor line attaching her to the inside of the shuttle's airlock had disconnected. Angel could hear Sabre shouting over the channel and realized that someone was attempting to kill them both. Angel grimaced and pressed a button on the keypad attached to her right arm, bringing the Heads-Up Display online. The shuttle appeared as a green target, indicating it was friendly. The target circle around it widened as another burst of transmission was sent to her. Angel turned her eyes on the station and realized that it too was sending a transmission. Angel cut the chatter from the shuttle and listened in._

"_Angel are you there?"_

"_Yeah, what's going on here!" Angel yelled angrily._

"_Oh nothing… just watching a bird fall from her perch," the unknown voice sniggered._

_With that the channel closed and Angel's eyes clouded over in anger. Someone was trying to kill her! She suspected that it was a medium ranking person who disliked her intensely. She heard more chatter from the shuttle but it was getting fainted as she drifted further from it. 'I'm not going to die out here for nothing!' Angel thought. She grabbed the line that had detached from the shuttle and used the special grooves in the gloves she was wearing to allow her Ice powers to seep through. The cable began to glow a shade of cyan and she willed the cable to reach the comet ahead. Like a snake the cable twisted through space and the end of it imbedded itself into the comets surface, the area around it freezing even more than it already was frozen. Angel then tried pulling the comet towards her, fighting the pull of whatever was attracting the comet. Since there was no air to travel through, Angel couldn't hear the groaning as the comet slowed to a halt. She let go of the cable with one hand, noticing that the comet began to move again and was dragging her along, and pointing her palm to an area ahead of the comet. She unleashed an Ice Beam and used its recoil to slow herself down again and this time she began to drag the comet with her. Angel's anger seethed within her mind as she grabbed the cable once more and began to swing, very slowly at first but speeding up with each rotation. After a few minutes Angel was in a hammer throw with the comet and she finally unleashed it towards the station, smirking as she watched the result. The station was a long cylinder shape with many pods branching outwards from it, forming a spider-web like shape. The comet hurtled into its outer edge and crushed the metal upon impact, causing an explosion as the section of the station depressurized and ignited the oxygen tanks. The explosion died out in under a second but the effect destroyed the comet and chunks of it hurtled past the rest of the station, denting parts of it that it hit. Angel noticed a shadow looming up behind her and turned to see the shuttle, heading towards her at a low velocity. Angel smirked and got ready to climb aboard._

_End f__lashback, end flashback, end flashback_

Angel owed her life to Sabre and made sure that the girl was safe throughout their stay on the station. Now it appeared that something was coming towards them through the bulkheads. Angel let her hands power up with a pair of Water Pulse, ready to soak and confuse any potential enemies. There was a groaning sound and a crack appeared in the ceiling. Angel got ready to attack as the crack widened and a figure dropped down into the room. The figure was dressed all in black and stood up, looking around. Angel took one look at the silver eyes and hair before glomping the figure in a tight hug.

"Jake!!!" she squealed.

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**End here folks! Ok now that Angel and Sabre have shared their side of the story it'll be someone else's turn. Vote for the next character cause we still have seven to go! Ideas for what each character will go through will help and after each seven characters have had their chapters there will be an eighth one to show what they did to get to Angel and Sabre.**** Anyways peace out and comments are appreciated, whether good or bad.**


	28. Chapter 28: May: Take On Me

**Dark Angel**

**Hey guys sorry for the long update, and by the way am only gonna say this once and for the last time. I AM A GUY! I hate how people, particularly other guys think we can't write good romance. Ok enough of that. The polls are in and today's chapter features our very own: May Maple!! Yay! Since the Angel and Sabre chapter went into the part where they meet up this chapter will also include parts of how they meet up, but you won't get the whole picture until all the chapters are complete, hopefully by the end of the summer holidays.**** So without further to do… Chow Down! PS: I do not own the song "It's My Turn to Fly" by The Urge… so shove it up ya!**

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**Chapter 28: May – Take On Me**

_Day 1: In the Ghetto_

May awoke feeling as though a Donphan had stomped on her head, rather hard. She opened her eyes and hissed as sunlight burned into her retina, forcing her to close them again. As she waited for her eyes to adjust she felt out with her hands, trying to work out why she was on concrete and not on the floor of the forest. She heard the loud crack of an unmistakable gunshot and sat up suddenly, her eyes snapping open. She appeared to be in an alleyway of sorts, leading onto a filthy street covered with dirt, graffiti and more prostitutes than she had ever seen in one place. May could smell the acrid scent of burning rubber, the stench of alcohol and tobacco, and finally she could smell something she had never smelled before, something that smelt musky and strong. May decided to pay it no mind and decided that the first priority she had was to get off the ground. Slowly clambering to her feet she realized that she was no longer in the forest at the Space Towers. _'Hell I might not even be in Hoenn anymore…' _she thought. Instead of panicking she calmed herself and reached for her pokenav in her pouch at her waist. She flipped open the device but all that appeared on the screen was static and a buzzing sound could be heard from the power source. She looked at it quizzically before she threw it away from her when smoke began to leak from the casing. The device seemed to melt into nothing but a steaming pool on the hard, pock-marked ground. May frowned and reached for her pokeballs, only to grab at air.

"Huh? Where's my pokemon?" May said out-loud in surprise.

Instantly the background noise around May changed. She became alert to the difference and hid near a rubbish skip near the back of the alley, crouching to the ground just in time as two rough looking men appeared at the entrance, leering down the alley. May strained her ears to make out what they were saying but it was no use, they were speaking too quietly for her to hear anything distinctive. She glanced out and nearly gasped in fright as they began advancing towards her position. The men obviously did not look friendly and their intentions could not be good. May remembered her father telling her about places like this place seemed to be. He had called them Hoods which were where people lived in poverty and harsh conditions, so they stole, raped, took drugs, formed gangs, and went into prostitution. She then remembered a person's… unique description of such a place.

"_It's __a place where plenty of shit goes down like gang-bangin', drug dealin', killin'. Generally a place where you wouldn't want to be."_

May realized that however she got here; it sent her to the worst possible place. She also finally realized what that smell was that she couldn't recognize. It was the smell of sex... However she pushed that aside and remembered seeing Ash disappear when that Rocket pokemorph shot a bolt of lightning at him. May, although not being extremely intelligent, was by no means dumb. She put two and two together and realized that she had been hit with some sort of electric teleportation. Such electricity would've disrupted her pokenav for sure but she still didn't know why her pokeballs were missing. While May was musing she didn't notice that one of the thugs in the alley had heard her breathing and was slowly stalking towards her. May snapped back to reality just as she was grabbed by the throat and dragged her to her feet, thrown back into the open.

"Well, well look what we have here. You must not be from around here little girl, what with your fancy clothes and travel pouch…" the one who had discovered her rasped.

May caught the scent of heavy alcohol on his breath as well as smoke, meaning that he probably took drugs too which would explain his rough voice. He was tall and meaty, but not overweight: it seemed to be more muscle than fat. He had a ragged grey vest on with many stains, some of which looked like blood. He also had faded and ripped jeans that were also in a sad state of disrepair. His feet were bare and had nicks, scratches, and scars all over them. The second man was dressed similarly except that he had a shirt with its sleeves missing that was open at the front, revealing a toned and strong abdomen. He had more hair as well, as his friend was balding, but this man's hair was long and greasy. Both of them had May cornered in her little hiding spot and both were making rather… obvious movements towards her. _'Oh shit… they want to rape me!' _May realized with a start. Not wanting to be caught without a fight, May jumped forward suddenly, her head catching the bald thug in the chin and snapping his jaw shut… right onto his tongue. The force of the hit jarred his nerves and sending him sprawling back, blood trickling from his jaw. The man's friend was stunned and May took this chance to attack, kicking the back of his knee and forcing him into a knelling position. From there May kicked him full force in the face and punched down on the back of his head as hard as she could. The pervert cried out in pain and collapsed, his friend starting to sit up and rub his aching jaw. May was now running on primal instinct and the raw strength she had received from her traveling as a trainer. She snatched a discarded beer bottle and smashed it over the man's bald head and he collapsed, blood pouring from the many scratches in his scalp.

"And stay down!" May yelled at them.

The two men were not unconscious but they were in far too much pain to catch her as May ran out of the alley. She looked around the grimy street and spotted a car with some teens taking one of the wheels off. Somewhere else she saw someone throw a trash can through a window and run away. Some men stood on the street corner, smoking and watching the chaos ensue. Finally May could see several fires burning, some of them were rubbish bins, others were cars that had been stripped down, and one was an apartment with cracked walls and peeling paint. May winced at the carnage all around her and ran down the street on her right, hoping to escape this place. She ran past people on the ground, begging for money or food but she ignored them. She ran past a woman looking for her Poochyena but decided not to tell her that one of the homeless tramps had a bloody dog collar. She ran until her sides were burning and her legs felt like they would give way beneath her. She finally stopped and rested her hands on her knees, bent over gasping for breath.

"Psst."

May glanced towards the sound and saw a girl of around 15 or 16 beckoning her towards her. May weakly walked over and leant against the wall beside the girl.

"Hey there little girl. I noticed you running around, what're you doing around here?" the girl asked.

May examined this person from the corner of her eye before answering. She was tall, had dark skin and was dressed like she was ready for a war to break out. She had dark blue combats on, pockets all over the place. A torn light green vest adorned her torso, scars from things May didn't want to think about were visible on her skin. Her black hair was in a long ponytail and her eyes seemed like dark tunnels, with little warmth in them. Her shoes looked like they had been marched across the entirety of Hoenn twice over without stop and she wasn't wearing socks. May thought of a believable answer for the girl's question. She couldn't exactly say _"Oh I'm not sure, I was watching a fight between some super-powered meta-humans and one of them transported me here."_

"I… I'm lost. I don't know where I am exactly, I lost my map on the road while hitchhiking and the guy dumped me here then drove off," May explained, hoping that the girl didn't realize she was lying.

"Hmmm…" the girl stared at her, as if sizing her up. "Well I guess you could hang out with me and my crew while we find out where you're going. But little missy, you might not be able to go anywhere anytime soon, the cops set up a blockade around the city to stop any of the drug lords or hit men from escaping."

May paled as the girl continued to stare at her. Suddenly the 'little missy' comment came back to her and she riled.

"My name is May! Don't treat me like a child!" she retorted harshly.

"Wow, so you do have some fight in you. I saw what you did to those two thugs back in that alley and frankly, I'm impressed. My name is Cath…" the girl held her hand out.

May glanced at her hand warily, wondering if 'Cath' would try to steal anything if she shook her hand. Cath smiled at May's response and lowered her hand. She whistled and a jeep screeched around one of the corners on the street and stopped in front of the two.

"Well, you coming?" Cath asked.

May grinned and climbed into the jeep, noticing that it had three other girls of around Cath's age in it. The one seated next to May turned towards her and held a gun to her face. May blinked and before she realized it, she had her own handgun out, poking into the teen's jaw. Cath noticed this and growled at the teen with the gun, the girl wilting under her gaze and lowering the weapon. May noticed she had been holding her breath and slowly let it out, placing her gun back into her pouch. Cath clambered into the jeep and slammed the door shut, signaling the driver to floor it. The jeep sped off into parts unknown as May watched through the windows. The driver drove like a woman who knew the streets well or wanted to die in them. May watched them take corners on two wheels, dodging bricks thrown at them by lowlifes with nothing better to do. Finally the jeep stopped by a garage and all the woman plus May clambered out. May steadied herself as she touched the ground, feeling dizzy from the ride. She followed Cath into the building next to the garage as yet another late teen girl came to park the jeep in a shed and lock it down. May was led down a staircase that twisted down into a large underground storage facility, filled with girls of all ages, from preteens to early thirties. She had to hold back a gasp at the number of them as Cath laughed at her reaction.

"Welcome May to the Sin City Angels."

_Day 37: This is warfare, deal with it._

May was beginning to feel easier around the other women here in Sinnohpolis City, nicknamed Sin City for short and for all the shit that went on down there. May was a rising star in the all-female gang she had been accepted into as a strong leader-figure and she herself felt that she didn't deserve it. However there wasn't a lack of things to do in this dirty little warehouse, there were windows to fix and barricade, food supplies to steal, and children to look after. May realized just how desperate everyone was around here and that they only stole from the rich people, most of whom used illegal methods to secure their wealth. So with this in mind May was currently sitting inside an air duct above a safe room, waiting for the guard shift change. Then she would be lowered in, she would pick the safe lock and steal as much cash as she could before she was reeled back up by Cath.

"The shift is in around thirty seconds May, be ready," Cath whispered.

May nodded and secured the shabby harness around her slim waist, making sure that it was properly fastened. The guard inside the room checked his watch and sighed, leaving with a slam of the door. May reacted quickly by pulling away the grate quietly and pushing herself down into the room. She hung in the air for a second before she lightly touched the ground. She looked around and sighed when she saw no guards. May had done this before about three times and the group that had done the infiltration had been caught twice. And twice May had seen some of her new friends die at the hands of the cruel guards. May wanted to make sure it didn't happen again, so she quickly tiptoed over to the safe and pulled a lock pick set from her new trouser pocket. She was wearing a pair of brand new black combat trousers with many pockets on them and a black long sleeved top with pockets on the biceps. Her pouch had been swapped or a red one and her bandanna had been traded for a black one with a red half-pokeball design on the top. It reminded her of Ash's favorite hat that he always wore back in Hoenn. May had been very surprised to learn that she was no longer in her homeland but a region called Sinnoh, where strange new pokemon were rumored to live. This city had no pokemon trainers and therefore, no pokemon. There was too much violence for any wild pokemon to want to live in either.

"Shame… Ash would've gone nuts if I'd captured one," May whispered to herself.

She realized that the lock had become open and she pulled the heavy door of the safe open and looked inside. She expected to see mounds of taped up wads of cash lying inside but she saw something she did not expect. There was a metal case inside, small and unassuming. May carefully reached in and opened the top, flipping it open deftly. Suddenly there was a beep from inside and May saw a large package of what looked like some form of clay inside, with a digital display on top. This display was active and numbers were appearing in sequence, from larger to smaller. May suddenly realized that it was a timer, and so the clay package was probably a bomb. May ignored the fact that the guards might hear her and jumped away with a loud curse.

"Cath, it's a trap! Pull me up!" She called.

There was no reply.

"Cath?!"

May looked at the open vent and saw no friendly face, no arm ready to grab her hand. She realized with dull horror that Cath had left her behind and ran away to save herself. There was a loud clacking sound outside the safe room door and assumed that the guards had heard her. She ran back to the safe and opened it, reading the timer once more.

"Ten seconds!" she cried.

She picked up the heavy storage device and flung it to the floor. It fell gracefully and skidded next to the door, thumping against the plasterboard wall. May gave it a frightened look and jumped into the small safe with a cry of anguish, struggling to pull the door shut. She saw the room's door open and a loud beep, just as the safe door finally clanged shut…

She didn't see anything but she heard a dull 'whump' sound from outside the safe and the muffled screams of what sounded like several guards. There was a loud crash and a part of the safe door dented inwards violently. May held her hands to her ears and screwed her eyes shut at the noise. She was breathing heavily and forced herself to calm down before she attempted to get out. She waited five seconds after the noise faded and cautiously opened the unlocked safe. The cord from her harness had prevented the door from closing all the way and stopped it relocking or becoming jammed, May thought thankfully. Unfortunately there was a large mess to greet her still rather innocent eyes. There were guards that had survived the blast but were either heavily burnt or slightly dismembered. May retched onto the recently clean tiled floor and wiped her mouth with her bare hand. She still had to get out of here and so with a heavy heart May dragged a large crate over to the air vent and crawled inside. Beneath her fingers the air vent was vibrating gently, which meant that Cath had to be nearby still! May frowned in anger and set off after her 'friend'. After carefully negotiating the twisting duct, using the cord as a guide, May came back out to the open night and spotted Cath's retreating back, running towards a waiting motorbike, the one she and May had arrived on. May watched angrily as there were shouts behind and beneath her and an ungodly crack shot through the air. Cath stumbled and fell forward, May gasping in shock. Cath struggled to get back up as one of the guards ran to her and put his gun to her head. May's eyes widened in horror and she realized too late that she should have closed them. The guard pulled the trigger of his handgun and shot a bullet at Mach 2 into the back of Cath's skull, penetrating the fragile bone and drilling into the delicate organ known as the brain, before forcefully exploding out the front of her head. Cath's brain splattered to the ground in many small pieces along with skull fragments and bits of skin.

"Oh my god…" May breathed.

She remained perfectly still as the guards slowly filtered back inside, muttering about 'idiot whores'. Once the last one had gone inside, May jumped from the air duct, hitting the ground crouched and rolling with the fall. She ran, crouched low, towards the black motorbike hidden in the darkness of the night and hopped onto the saddle, gunning the throttle and releasing the parking brake. The wheels spun slightly before gripping the road and allowing May to cruise off, into the darkness of the night with nary a look back.

May wove easily through the streets, her eyes were used to moving at high speeds and she could now track things with little difficulty. She swerved through the traffic like a daredevil lunatic and used some of the shortcuts she had learned from Cath before she… May forced herself not to dwell on it and focused on getting back to her temporary home. She looked up and saw the strangely inviting lights of the warehouse and did a skidding quarter-turn stop in front of the door. Her hair was a windswept mess but she paid no heed as she walked to the doors, opening them with a small push. Instantly she heard silence from underneath her as the women heard her arrival. Loud footsteps came towards her location and two of Cath's personal friends arrived on the scene.

"Oh it's the kid. Cool, you survived now where's the money? We need to get restocked soon," one of them said in a slow drawl, as if speaking to a small child.

May's eyes were shadowed by her hair hanging over her face as she walked towards the two late teens. She paused as she reached the one who had spoken, remembering her as Tina and he other as Yumi.

"I may be just a kid, but I'm not too young to die… just like Cath did. You're _money_… you're FUCKING MONEY ALMOST GOT ME KILLED!!!" May found herself screaming. "They knew we were coming and planted a bomb in that case we were to steal! Some great fucking plan! Then Cath ditched me and got herself killed! This isn't a game you know, get over yourself!"

The dark haired girl looked stunned as May finished shouting. May could see tears welling up in the girl's eyes and suddenly felt sad and angry at herself for being so insensitive. The other girl merely shook her head and gave a small 'tch' of disapproval. May heard this and slowly turned to face her. Before she could react, May had grabbed Yumi by the front of her leather jacket and forcefully pulled her down to May's eye level. Yumi was shocked at the coldness in May's glare and felt a shiver run down her spine.

"If you do not want to lose anymore friends, I suggest we all learn to work together as a team. That way, we can all function as one and get our job done better. This isn't only about you, it's about all of us here," May whispered dangerously. Yumi found herself nodding in agreement. "Now let's just go back downstairs and start to get ourselves organized. If we want to survive here then we have to stick together."

_Day 281: Leave well enough alone…_

May put down the weights with a sigh and stretched her sore arms over her head. She took a deep breath through her nose and yawned loudly as she got up off of the bench she had been lying on. May had spent the last year and a quarter well and was now incredibly fit for a girl of fifteen. She had trained her mind and body to be able to withstand all sorts of punishment after she had been captured once and tortured by a rival gang. Luckily, when they left her out in the street, naked and near death, the Sin City Angels came to her rescue and nursed her back to health. It seemed that Cath's death had changed many of the woman's beliefs on teamwork. Now it was no longer "I tell you what to do and you do it" but more like "I tell you what to do and do it with you". May had managed to work her way up the ranks, displaying great courage on several food raids and even getting some of the younger woman out of danger during a food riot. Now May was around the third highest-ranked member of the gang and her decisions carried a lot of weight in the younger population. May also had her own little fan club comprised of some of the pre-teen girls who had started to wear bandannas and biker shorts like her younger self. May smiled at the thought and sat down on her bed. She was living around nearly two hundred plus girls with little to no privacy whatsoever and she had to make the best of a 'could-be-worse' situation. Next to her bed was a small table with some framed pictures of her days with Ash and the rest of Angel's team of heroes. She hadn't told anyone of her earlier days before she wound up in Sinnoh but she was certain that Ash wouldn't forget her and that they would meet again.

"Shinx! Shinx!"

May eyed her pet with a friendly glance before patting the spot of her bed next to where she was sitting. A little cat like creature jumped up and sat next to her. She had found this pokemon near the outskirts, having set off one of the stun mines around the city's perimeter. Word on the streets was that the blockade was going to lift soon and the city would be opened up again. May couldn't wait but was concerned for her little friend. This pokemon had a grey furred front half, while its rear half was a black colour. It had circular, fluffy ears with yellow tufts on the inside and a small rounded face, with large and soulful yellow eyes. Its tail was like a yellow four-point star at the end of a normal cat tail and May had, after listening to it for a while, concluded that this pokemon's name was Shinx. When they had first met, Shinx had warmed up to May immediately and the two became good friends, especially since Shinx was able to repel intruders with its Thunderbolt attack. Shinx was an Electric-type but May knew almost nothing of its capabilities in battle as her pokedex had been ruined when she had first arrived and all of her pokeballs, empty or not were missing. So she was content to let Shinx roam free as a pet, training Shinx for battle on inanimate objects of little value.

"Hey Shinx, how's life?" May asked, her voice slightly deeper than her younger self had sounded. "Seen anything that needs reporting?"

Shinx shook its head as a no.

"Alright. Well am gonna head to bed now, it's late and we spent all day training… I can't wait for the blockade to end. Just think Shinx, that there's a whole region out there to explore and I've only seen this small part of it! New pokemon like you to meet and make friends with are waiting for us. Plus I can start my search for Ash and the others in earnest. I mean, I can't look much in just one city… I should phone someone that knows Ash to see where he is. Shame that the phone lines to the entire city were cut to stop crappy distress messages from being sent out by those drug bastards…" May exclaimed energetically.

Physically May had changed quite a bit in the last year as puberty really kicked in. Her already above average bust had swelled quite a bit and left many a man stopped in the streets to try and look again. She was also slightly taller than average, reaching 5 foot 6 inches in total. Her hair was no longer framing her face in two large bangs like it was before and she let it hang free, trailing past her shoulders. She had her usual black bandanna on her head and a black long-sleeved t-shirt on with a simple angel wings design across the chest. She now wore black combat jeans that were longer than necessary in the legs and had many useful pockets. Finally, underneath them, was a pair of tough black combat boots, with hidden pockets on the inside for hiding small items in. All in all May thought she looked hot. May laid on her back, failing to undress herself as she was too worn out from her activities during the day. She had gone outside of the underground warehouse and done fifty laps around the nearest block, then come back inside and spent a full hour weightlifting, a half hour doing sit-ups and crunches and finally she cooled down on a training dummy that was bolted to the floor. May was now a well-toned, hard-muscled machine. She, of course, was not inhumanly strong but she was strong enough to take care of herself against other 'normal' people. Her only new talent that she had actually developed since she appeared in Sinnoh was demolitions. When May first handled explosives she was scared out of her mind and nearly detonated the charge early. However after a while May began to see that the loud bangs and pyrotechnics were kind of fun. May yawned quietly and listened to the quiet bustling of the warehouse that signaled the end of the day. May's eyes were heavy with sleep and she closed them gently, darkness enfolding her and letting her drift off.

0o0o0o0o0o0

May awoke with a start that morning, her hair damp with sweat and tears in the corners of her eyes. She had had the nightmare of no one recognizing her or wanting to be her friend again for the fourth time in a row. May scowled, angry at herself for being so wimpy but reasoned that she was probably just nervous about traveling again with just Shinx for company. May looked around and saw that it was nearing the end of the sunrise and she decided to get up and out for a jog in the dim light of the morning. She got up and slipped on her boots, careful not to disturb Shinx, who had curled up next to her on the small bed. May sighed as she walked up the stairs to the ground level and out into the early morning sun. The first thing May noticed as she set off at a brisk pace was the lack of noise. Surely there were still people up and creeping around? May tried to ignore this disturbing fact and was even more disturbed when a new car drove past, at the designated speed limit. May's mind became awhirl with an idea and she started to increase her pace, setting off in a full blown dash for the city edge. She ran on for a full ten minutes, not slowing down or running out of breath. Once she reached the final building at the borders she looked out and gasped. They were gone… there was not a single Police vehicle in sight. No helicopters roamed the skies and no flashing lights swarmed the ground… there was just open road. In the far distance May could make out a new city that she had been unable to see before because of the blockade. May ran to the building she had almost passed and kicked the door in, not bothering to apologize to the elderly couple she had frightened in doing so. She ran up the stairs to the second floor and opened the nearest window she could. She then grabbed the window ledge and clambered out, climbing up to the roof. She finally stood up, straight and tall, looking over the horizon. From her new vantage point she could see the far city a little better and noticed that it looked a little like Sinnoh City itself. May snapped out of her daze when she heard angry shouting.

"Hey young lady what do you think you're doing up there?!" shouted the old man.

"I'm sorry old man but I need a better look," May replied with breaking her gaze from her newest destination.

"And what might this look be directed at deary?" the old woman asked kindly after hearing May's apology.

"Over there," May replied distantly, pointing to the far away city.

The old couple looked in said direction and the old woman gave a squeal of delight. The old man cheered and the happy couple started dancing.

"We can go see our children Jonathan! Isn't it splendid? We can see Jubilife City!" the woman cried happily.

"Oh Charlotte… how we've waited for this day!" Jonathan replied.

Charlotte and Jonathan rushed into their home as quickly as their old bones would carry them while may smiled sadly at the now disappointing situation she was in. She was happy to be able to leave and find her friends and possibly her pokemon but she was sad at leaving her new friends and somewhat, family. May leapt from the roof and rolled across the ground lightly, standing up and dashing back to the warehouse as fast as her lengthy legs could go. At what seemed to be a painfully slow pace she arrived in under eight minutes, a new record for her. She ran down the stairs three at a time and when she reached the bottom over three hundred faces turned to look at her. May gulped but grinned weakly when Shinx fought through the crowd and rushed to her side. May decided that she should tell them now or never.

"I guess you all know what's going on, eh?" May called.

"Don't leave us May!" one little girl shouted before breaking down into tears.

May was shocked at the outburst and smiled warmly, which seemed to calm some of the older woman.

"I'm sorry all of you but I have to go… I think I should tell you all of my life before I arrived here," May called.

Instantly silence reigned.

"Before I arrived here I lived in a region called Hoenn, which I don't know how far away it is. I grew up in a place called Petalburg City as the daughter of its Gym Leader, Norman Maple. When I was thirteen I was allowed to go on my own pokemon journey and travel across Hoenn, performing in Pokemon Contests. I met a group of people who you could say were like superheroes. They fought against people like these drug lords or terrorists who had ruined their lives, by turning them into what we call Pokemorphs, which are half-human, half-pokemon. I joined up with them along with my best friend Ash Ketchum, which I'm sure you've heard, has been making a name for himself here in Sinnoh. I couldn't believe that after over a year of waiting I heard he was in this region, traveling around looking for us when we were split up by one of our enemies. Now I must go and meet him, find our other friends and help to finish the job they started. Which is: To make this world a better place for people like us!"

At these final words the entire warehouse exploded into applause. May could see some of the younger girls and even some older woman crying and she was sad for them. She felt like she was losing a part of her family and this belief was only strengthened when a girl around her age made her way through the crowd with May's cargo backpack in her arms. She handed the bag to May and gave her a small smile, which made May worse for leaving such good people behind, who had learned a great deal from her.

"Everything you own is in there plus a little gift from all of us," the girl said with a wink.

May opened the bag and nearly cried tears of joy. Sitting on the top of the pile of her new clothes were six scratched up, but working, pokeballs and a slightly dusty black pokedex of the Sinnoh region. May looked up at the girl and dropped the bag, embracing her in a tight bear hug. The other woman stopped their applause and made a line behind the girl May was hugging, causing May to give them a wondrous look. After she had finished hugging the girl and let her go she began to make her goodbyes to each and every member of the Sin City Angels. Each one gave her wishes of good luck and some of the bolder lesbians in the group were brave enough to kiss her goodbye. May was flattered by all the attention and desperately tried to memorize every face and name, burning them into her mind forever. Once everyone had given her a goodbye May picked up her discarded bag and pulled a pokeball out of it. She looked at Shinx, who looked back and tossed the pokeball to it, causing the ball to open and draw in Shinx in a bolt of white light. The ball dropped to the floor and shook for the briefest of moments before becoming still with its signature locking 'ding' sound. May picked up the ball and belted it, listening as the Angels around her cheered. She turned and made her way up the stairs, followed by a happy procession that crowded the streets and brought curious onlookers. After nearly twenty minutes of walking May stopped right at the border of the city, just inside the city line and gave a look back at her friends.

"A long journey begins first with a cash advance…"

This brought a laugh out of everyone who got the joke.

"… and then with a single step."

And May took that step without hesitation, and another immediately after. Soon she was walking well on her way to Jubilife City, and with it, her first clue to find Ash. It took May only half an hour of non-stop walking before she was out of sight of Sin City, which more and more traffic was heading to and from with each passing minute. May pulled her iPod out of her combat jeans and flipped through the choices before she found a nice song to listen to and began to jog the rest of the way. Soon she would be with Ash and together they would find the rest of the group and rescue Pikachu and Angel from Team Rocket's clutches. Until then she had to be patient and try to track everyone down and see about getting her pokemon back.

_Day 382: Never again…_

May was sure this was it. She could feel the familiar presence like a disease around her heart. She knew that this disease was called longing and kept it at bay while she wandered around town. She knew Ash was here somewhere, she could feel it. After a month of searching she knew she had found him in this backwater town. She could imagine him already, celebrating winning his third Sinnoh League badge. True Ash was looking for his friends but he was a Pokemon trainer through and through. She would be severely disappointed in him if he gave up his dream to become a Pokemon Master. May herself had decided to take up contests again after hearing about the new Sinnoh Super Contests. She had a team of four pokemon, which she now knew a lot more about thanks to her pokedex. She had a cute pokemon called Luxio after Shinx had evolved. She also had a Skarmory she had found in a mountain range, along with a pokemon called a Prinplup and finally she had evolved her Munchlax that she had caught on her third day of freedom from the city. With these four pokemon, May was sure she would be able to look after herself in any situation, especially since her Skarmory was large enough to carry her on its back. May wandered down the busy street, looking left and right for any sign of her crush and her eyes were drawn to a sign stapled to the wooden wall of a store.

"A Pokemon Contest? Here?" May asked herself.

May felt the familiar tingle of excitement, coursing through her as she read through the date and venue of the Contest. It had been a long, long time since she had entered a contest and Ash be damned, she would enter this one. May spotted the Pokemon Center nearby and strode inside, brushing past a dark and somewhat depressed looking teen as she stepped inside. May breathed in and smelled the scent of disinfectant and air freshener in the atmosphere of the Center. May was about to step up to the reception desk when something occurred to her.

'_That boy… he had dark, spiky hair like Ash's… plus hazel eyes… and he wore a hat! Shit!!!'_ May cursed her observational skills as she realized she must've just walked past Ash. She toiled internally for a moment before figuring that the boy she was sure was Ash would be back later. She sighed and walked up to the reception, where yet another Nurse Joy manned the post of Head Nurse, Maid and Receptionist all in one go. May was astounded by these woman, by not just their sheer numbers but also by their ability to do a shit-load of work everyday.

"Hi I'm here to enter the local Pokemon Contest tomorrow," May stated clearly.

"Oh my, I'm sorry but that won't be possible," the Nurse Joy replied sadly.

"Is there no more spaces?"

"No, you require a partner… it's a Team Contest, where two trainers work together to show that they can succeed in a situation that requires teamwork with someone unfamiliar," Joy explained.

May nodded and she felt slightly downtrodden at the problem she now faced.

"I'll enter with her…"

May whipped her head around at the voice and spotted the dark teen from earlier. She stood almost a head taller than her and was broad-shouldered and muscular, though May could tell that the teen was a natural athletic. The way he moved quickly, unfalteringly, and gracefully portrayed the body of a dancer in her eyes. The boy had, as May had already seen, dark hair that was in long, messy spikes and hazel colored eyes that seemed to shine with intense determination. May gulped nervously. He wore a long, dark blue trenchcoat that looked almost like part of a school uniform, with matching gloves that May was sure she had seen before. The golden stripes and pale circles that resembled gems looked awfully familiar. He also had loose fitting jeans and a black t-shirt under the coat. His belt hung haphazardly fro his waist, five pokeballs visible on it.

"Do I know you?" May asked.

"I'm not sure," the teen replied, his voice deeper than Ash's had been almost two years ago, with a slight gruffness in it.

"Well my name is May… May Maple," May declared, offering her hand.

"May… I remember that name. It was the name of a close friend of mine's at one point," the young man answered, taking her hand in a strong hold and shaking with her.

"Is your name by any chance Ash Ketchum?" May asked, hoping against hope that all these coincidences were pointing her in the right direction.

"You know of me. Well I suppose I am getting quite a name for myself out here in Sinnoh," Ash replied with a grin, putting a hand on the back of his head.

May realized two things in that instant. She had found Ash at last but… he didn't recognize her at all. May felt slightly silly for not realizing that her radical new look would be overlooked by Ash, who would probably be looking for familiar features. She scolded herself inside and decided to let Ash know just who he was dealing with. However when she looked up she saw Ash staring her right in the eye, unblinking fixated on her sapphire orbs. Ash mouth moved as if he was talking but he wasn't making a sound. May began to get worried and decided to act before Ash made a scene.

"Well then Mr. Ketchum, I suggest we get signed up and get to know each other a little better," May exclaimed, with a steely tone in her voice.

Ash gave her a knowing look and nodded, seemingly calm but May noticed that his hands were clenched and trembling. May and Ash signed up as Team Seven in the contest and walked to a couch in the far corner of the Center, sitting down on it and looking at each other.

"Well… is it really you May… but then… how?" Ash asked right away.

"Honestly? I don't know. But we still need to find the others, and find out where _they_ took Pikachu," May answered.

"I don't know either. My plan was to go through the Sinnoh League, which would be broadcast across the world, and hopefully some of you would be watching and find out where I am. I guess it worked then?" Ash said hopefully.

"I knew you were in the Sinnoh League but I've been in this region for the past year and a half. I was in Sinnoh City, when I woke up but the place was locked up tighter than a Magikarp's a…" May trailed to a halt as Ash gave her a hard stare.

May became acutely aware that all was not well in the Center. A large, beefy man was making his way over to their couch, with an arrogant swagger in his step. Ash seemed to tense up and uttered a small groan of frustration at the man's presence. Said person plopped down on the couch right between Ash and May and laid back, giving them a fake grin as he looked over Ash and checked out May, to which May was oblivious and Ash was annoyed. The guy then turned to Ash.

"So we meet again, eh? You know… I think you owe me some money. There's no way that crappy little shit of a Turtwig could've beaten my Golem, I think you cheated!" the guy said dramatically, and casually.

"And I think you'd best go annoy someone else with your little sob story. Grass types beat both Rock and Ground types, which a Golem is both of. Hey you know what? I'll give you one dollar and you can go call someone who cares," Ash replied, equally as casually.

The man's face darkened and a vein in his forehead stood out.

"Let's take this outside," he sneered, getting up and walking off.

"Gladly," both Ash and May replied in unison.

They looked at each other and got up, following the man outside to where there was obviously going to be a fight. Ash glanced at May worriedly every now and then while May just walked beside him, unaware of the attention he was giving her. As they exited the Center they noticed that the man who had challenged them was not there. May sensed danger before she saw it, and ducked back as the man leapt from the side with a broken bottle in his hand. Ash was then surrounded by three more surprise attackers and was on the defensive. May watched the guy warily as he stared hungrily at her ample chest for a moment before lunging again. May scowled and whipped a hand to his wrist and locked it in a vice-like grip, causing him to drop the bottle as she squeezed down hard on the main vein that supplied blood to his hand.

"Ash I got this one, how's it on your end?" May called.

"Just peachy!" Ash called back.

He ducked as two sucker punches came from either side, which caused the two attackers to hit one another, and start fighting amongst themselves. Ash shook his head and turned to his last opponent, his eyes suddenly shining blue with a strong power. He clenched his left hand and held out his right, open palmed and facing the sky. Ash's eyes closed for a second as a small orb of blue light, no larger than a marble appeared above his gloved hand, hovering there like a little marble. The orb grew larger and larger until it was softball sized and spinning rapidly in his hand.

"You have a dark heart, one of venom and malice. I will bring in the light," Ash intoned.

He threw the glowing energy ball at the guy, who took the attack to the chest and crumpled to the ground, with no visible injuries.

"I recognize that now! That's Aura!" May exclaimed, staring at Ash.

Without turning around she elbowed the guy she had caught in the face, bursting his nose and knocking him out. Ash blinked and surveyed the four unconscious thugs on the ground around them, feeling vaguely annoyed at the attempted assault. With a heave he hefted two of them onto his back and dragged them over to May, who was watching him with interest. Ash gave her a noncommittal shrug as she stared at him, heaving two lowly bums across the concrete pavement.

"What're you doing?" she asked as he got closer.

"Taking these assholes to the hospital…" Ash grunted back, struggling under their combined weight.

May nodded and grabbed the guy with the broken nose by the wrist and dragged him across the ground to where the fourth guy lay unconscious. With just as much effort as Ash she managed to get both men over her shoulders in a fireman's carry. From there Ash and May began to drag their sorry asses to the nearby hospital around three streets away. While they walked they were given very curious looks by passing commoners to the city, some of which had pokemon on their shoulders or following them on foot. May saw one boy looking a little like Ash's younger self, with a Pikachu clinging to his right shoulder, walking past and the sight made May cringe inside. Ash just ignored all except the ones he carried and May, who was having a better time of carrying them than him. _'Either she's stronger than me or those guys are pretty lightweight.' _Ash thought. However, as he judged May's form he found it likely that it was the former, and not the latter.

"So Ash, aside from the Sinnoh League, I noticed that you're wearing gloves similar to those of a Guardian of Aura and that you used an Aura Attack on one of those guys… where did you learn that?" May asked finally as the hospital came into sight. Ash took a deep breath.

"Well when I woke up I found myself at that castle where the Aura Festival took place… the place where we met Lucario. I was on the roof of one of the towers when I woke up… so I took advantage of being there and read up all I could about Aura. Back when we went there for the festival, when I was in the Tree of Beginning, while we were separated, me and Lucario found Pikachu and made it to the centre of the Tree… but the Tree was dying, along with Mew who needed the Tree to survive, so Lucario and I offered our Aura to Mew so that it would live be able to get the Tree stabilized. I used the gloves of Sir Aaron, who was in a kind of crystalline stasis there, and managed to channel my Aura through them so I got new ones custom made for me," Ash explained. "Now I'm an honorary Guardian of Aura and using a lot of research, the reason Sir Aaron and I have a similar Aura pattern is because… he's my great, great, great, and so forth granddad."

To say that May was impressed was saying that she was hated Pokemon Contests with a passion. May finally understood how Ash was able to climb that tree using only his feet so long ago. He used his Aura to anchor himself to the tree's natural Aura, like spiked climbing boots, only much stronger. May let the two thugs she was carrying fall to the concrete as she realized they were right outside the city hospital, Ash doing likewise. They walked off and continued to talk to one another about what they were doing during their separation. Since Ash had still been in Hoenn he had managed to scour the area a lot to find any trace of Angel and Pikachu, however he came up short. When May told of her missing Pokemon Ash smiled at her knowingly.

"Our pokeballs had a safety feature, as do all standard balls, that teleport them off our person to whoever looks after our 'boxed' pokemon, whenever the balls are in immediate danger of being irreparably damaged. Your pokemon should all be with Professor Oak in Kanto at the moment. Mine are and I recovered my pokemon along with a new pokedex from that Professor Rowan guy here in Sinnoh… he's a pretty gruff guy but he's nice all round. He lives back at Sandgem Town," Ash explained.

May was delighted to hear that her pokemon were safe and accounted for. Things were definitely looking up now…

_Day 445: Get Ready…_

Ash cursed as his finger was burnt by the hot bowl he had pulled out of the microwave. The baked beans were cooked and he was toasting one side of the bread in the oven to make baked beans with cheese, on toast. However at the moment Ash was grumbling and running his left hand under the cold tap of the kitchen sink in Mizu's house, in Hoenn. Ash and May had been tracked down by Jake soon after they had met each other and were brought to where most of the others were staying as they met up. Already Gary, Rebekah, Jake, May, himself and Jimmy had been found and gathered up. Jake had been able to persuade Angel's parents to let them hole up there for a while, while they awaited a sign to Mizu's location. As well as waiting Ash was helping to finalize a plan to locate Angel and Pikachu, using Angel's now dormant Trainer ID signal that came from an identification chip in her hand. Jake remembered the day they were to have the chips installed; Angel wouldn't leave the bathroom saying that the man with the needle was going to experiment on her again. Ash grimaced at the thought of a 14 year old girl being afraid of needles for such a reason. _'Damn those guys, frightening a little girl like that… now Angel will be about 16, maybe even 17. I wonder if Pikachu's still…'_ Ash thought before shaking his head, as if to derail the train of thought.

"Ash! Is lunch ready yet!?" Jake shouted from the living room next door.

"Just about!" Ash yelled back.

"Shut up and feed us!" Rebekah added to the noise.

Ash grumbled some more and finished the toasties by adding sliced cheese to the top, which melted and sealed the beans onto the toast. Ash gathered all the considerable slices onto a large plate and carried it through to the next room, where most of his friends were sitting, around a large square table in the center of the room. Jake had a map of Hoenn spread out on it, with a pin stuck in several key locations of where they might find Mizu. What none of them knew however was that they required a different map if they were to find her.

"Ok Ash, thanks. People we need to find Mizu, now more than ever so that we can concentrate on figuring out where Angel and Ash's Pikachu are being held. It's been around a year and a half since Angel was taken and today she'll be celebrating her 17 birthday… it saddens me that she'll be spending it with Team Rocket. So, we need to think of a good way of locating our missing psychic. Any ideas?" Jake asked.

"Wanted posters?" May asked.

"Nope, too localized…" Jake replied.

"What if she isn't even in Hoenn…" Ash stated.

"Then God help us…" Jake answered heavily.

"Her pokemon!" Rebekah suddenly exclaimed. "They'll have a telepathic link or something like that, so they'll be able to track her!"

"…. Ok," Jake said. "All those in favor of Rebekah's idea?"

Jake raised his own hand immediately, followed by Ash, Gary, Jimmy and May making Rebekah smile at her own brilliance. Gary brought out his new mobile phone and speed dialed Professor Birch's laboratory in Littleroot Town, down south. Gary held his hand up and spoke briefly into the small machine, flipping it shut after a few seconds and using the house phone's teleporter, he brought out two pokeballs, both marked with a purple eye above the button. Mizu seemed to have the smart idea of personalizing all her pokeballs.

"Ok, let's do this!" Gary declared as he summoned the two pokemon.

Mizu's Alakazam and Espeon appeared in twin flashes of white light, looking around the room they appeared in warily. They relaxed when they laid eyes on Jake and walked over to him, giving him a warm greeting. The Espeon rubbed her head against his leg and purred loudly while the Alakazam gave a short bow. Jake blushed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he thought of what to say to these pokemon to make them understand what was needed of them. Finally Jake got the idea of giving them his memory of the plan. He knelt down in front of the two creatures and gently placed a palm on both of their forehead's, his hands glowing with a cheerful purple aura. The pokemon's eyes glazed over for a second before they refocused and began to concentrate. Ash made a quiet bet with May that the Espeon would find her first, while May bet on the intelligence of the Alakazam. Unfortunately for May, Ash's instincts won out and she handed him a cash note with a pout on her lips.

"Ok, these two seem to know where Mizu is, so let's get going!" Jake exclaimed, pointing out the window.

The six teens and two pokemon piled outside, waving goodbye to Angel and Mizu's parents as they left. Once there the Alakazam made the Espeon float using Psychic and acted out flying, prominently in one direction, which Jake interpreted as the way to go. Ash figured this out too and spoke to May quietly, summoning his faithful Pidgeot to their side. Pidgeot allowed Ash and May to climb onto his back, Ash sitting at the front with May holding onto his waist.

"Ok, as we've all seen and Ash has just done, we'll be flying so get something to get there and back with!" Jake called, pearly white, glistening wings bursting from his back, miraculously leaving his clothes undamaged.

Rebekah used her ring's extraordinary ability that allowed her to manipulate her flames to create flaming wings, embers falling to the ground with ever flutter of them. Jimmy offered his hand to Rebekah but she gave him a hard glare and turned away from him, ascending into the sky. Jimmy sighed and turned to Gary, who was on the mobile phone again, speaking rapidly into it. He finished and sat down, pulling his iPod out of his trouser pocket and inserting the headphones. Jimmy groaned…

"Looks like me and Gary are gonna have to wait a while," he declared.

"Well we're in no immediate hurry so I suppose we can wait for whatever transport Gary has arranged," Jake replied thoughtfully.

Jake reached into his backpack and pulled out a new comic from the Phiore Region, known as a manga, and began reading. Ash and May were happy with playing with Pidgeot, letting him chase them around on the ground, diving and rolling to the side as the great bird swooped past. Rebekah swept herself down to the roof and sat there, arms folded, one legs bent with her knee up to her chin, the other dangling over the edge. Jake noticed this and shook his head sadly. It was one thing for her to feel unaccepted, but it was much worse for her to feel rejected. After about a half hour Rebekah looked up and saw a dark shape heading towards them on the horizon. Along with the shape she heard a high pitched beating sound in the same direction.

"That must be it!" she called down, pointing.

Gary looked up and smiled, his iPod changing to one of his favorite songs. "It's My Turn to Fly – The Urge" appeared on the screen as the shape in the sky came to stop above them, the small black helicopter slowly descending. Gary grinned as he spotted Ellie in the pilot seat, only she would want to fly that beast of a machine. The sleek aircraft touched down and everyone got a good look at it. As far as helicopters went, this one looked quite high-tech for its size. It had an angular, pointed front, like the beak of a bird. Its entire body was pitch black and reflective, however there were two stripes of white warpaint going across the sides to personalize it. There were two large panels on the sides, which looked as though they might be hiding something.

"Say hello everyone, to the Starly," Gary declared.

Jimmy grinned with excitement at the thought of riding such a cool aircraft. He clambered into one of the passenger seats at the back as Ellie worked the controls to get the craft off the ground again.

"Not this time Ellie, I'd like to pilot this bird myself this time," Gary said.

"Really? B-But you've never flown the Starly, or the Staraptor before!" Ellie exclaimed, shocked. "These are delicate controls!"

"I can handle it," Gary assured her.

He climbed inside and sat himself at the now vacated pilot seat while Ellie now sat in the Co-pilot seat. Gary's iPod began to play as he flipped a few switches, the rotors of the Starly beginning to turn more rapidly.

_It's my turn to fly  
Proving ground tonight  
Try to be the best that I can  
I've grown to be a man  
Only human can understand  
I fill my lungs with fear and I exhale_

Gary pulled back on the twin joysticks and the Starly began to rise into the air rapidly, shaking from side to side slightly. Gary corrected the problem and the craft steadied, hovering above the ground. While it was true that Gary had never flown a helicopter before, he was a fast leaner and had read the handling manuals in the event that Ellie or any of his other colleagues were unavailable to fly anywhere. Gary nudged the joysticks forward and the craft tilted ahead, beginning to fly horizontally across the sky.

The whole group rose into the sky and took off where Mizu's Psychic types were telling Gary to go, the pokemon sitting on either side of Jimmy in the back of the craft. Jake, Rebekah, Ash, May and Pidgeot gathered around the craft and they shot off to the horizon, traveling at a moderately fast pace. They flew on for almost ten minutes but none of them seemed tired yet, Pidgeot still flying on strongly, Rebekah's wings of fire burning brightly and Jake never really needing sleep. Gary watched them following and decided to have some fun with them.

"Let's see if they can follow this!" he declared, jerking the controls up.

_  
Deep in 3043  
The refugees survive  
The whole of humanity lies in my hand  
Give me the chance tonight  
To prove to you what's in my eye  
Bring us to victory  
Dreams become reality  
_

The Starly dived suddenly, hurtling down at an alarming pace, with the nose pointed right at the ground. Gary laughed as Ellie and Jimmy shrieked next to him. The others followed the craft down, and were forced to pull up when the Starly suddenly straightened out, brushing the grass of the field it was above. Gary steadied the Starly at a decent altitude and continued in the correct direction towards where Mizu would be located. The others followed on still, all of them with wild grins on their face, preparing to follow Gary's next crazy movement.

"Ellie?"

"Yes Gary?"

"Did you install the Agility Feature?"

"Yes… why do you ask?"

Gary grinned in response.

"Let's open her up," he exclaimed, jamming a red button on top of the left joystick.

_  
It's my turn to fly  
Father, be with me tonight  
I'm right on target  
Keep the dream alive  
It's my turn to fly  
Gotta prove this tonight  
_

Outside of the helicopter, the two side panels began to emit a whirring sound. They inched out of the Starly's chassis and slid back, allowing for two large, cylindrical appendages to slid out from either side. Jake recognized them immediately and drew back. The Starly began to slow down, the rotors coming to a slow stop, allowing the medium sized craft to begin a freefall. Inside Jimmy was screaming in terror while Gary and Ellie shrieked with excitement. Gary felt the g-forces pressing him into his seat as the Starly began to spin, corkscrewing down. He reached for his right joystick and pressed the red button on that ones top. There was a grating noise and the rotors began to move again. This time however, they slid apart from each other and joined the two large cylinders at the side of the Starly. Two rotors on each side joined together to create a pair of wing and a roaring sound began to come from the two cylinders, fire bellowing out of them.

_  
Lets do it tonight_

The Starly pulled out of its dive sharply and rocketed forward, the jet nearly supersonic velocity. Trails of displaced air streamed from the wingtips as it flew and the others outside of the craft had to speed up considerably to catch up with the transformed aircraft. Jake pictured a Starly in his head and realized that the reason it was called the 'Starly' was because of its resemblance to the Flying-type. At supersonic velocities, even Pidgeot managing to keep up with them, the group made excellent time as they began to fly over an ocean.

"I thought you said Mizu must be in Hoenn!" Rebekah shouted over the rushing winds to Jake.

"I thought she was, according to the direction we're going she must be in Orre!" Jake yelled back.

Dream alive

After a few hours the Starly began to power down and transformed back into a helicopter as they were led to a small continent, yellowish brown in colour. It was tiny compared to Kanto or Johto, even Hoenn was larger than this… island. Rebekah felt sad for the people living there as sand blew around the mountains and a tornado rushed across the sea just of Orre's west coast. Soon the group was flying above the land mass and Gary checked the pokemon. They were staring avidly at a sandstorm brewing just to their left.

"Is she there?!" Gary yelled in surprise.

The Alakazam pointed to its centre and nodded.

"God protect us," Gary whispered as he whirled the Starly around and towards the sandstorm.

Jake, Rebekah and Pidgeot (along with his passengers) turned as well, slowing and descending the closer they got to the raging winds. The Starly landed just outside the event horizon of the phenomena, sand whipping through the air around it and nicking at the paint. Gary and jimmy both climbed out the craft and touched down on the dry, sandy earth. Jake and Rebekah landed next to them and Pidgeot was returned to his pokeball with praise from Ash and May, the two walking over to join the other six. Rebekah was the first to speak up when they were huddled together to protect from the sand.

"I'm not going in there!" she stated plainly.

"You can sit here for the next few hours and watch the Starly then," Jake replied sourly.

Rebekah realized that she would either be going into the sandstorm, or become very bored. She made her decision quickly.

"Never mind."

"Ok, anyone else got anything to say?" Jake asked.

"I think me, May, Gary and Jimmy should wait this one out. We're not properly equipped for traveling through a sandstorm and its potentially very dangerous for us, especially without Go-Goggles," Ash said simply.

"Good idea, you four will stay here then…"

"I'm coming," Gary interrupted.

"What?" Ash, Jake, May and Gary exclaimed.

"I'm going into that sandstorm! If Mizu's trapped in there then we need all available eyes to scout through it to find her," Gary explained, pulling a pair of goggles from his coat.

Jake nodded and turned, walking straight into the swirling sands, followed by Rebekah and then finally by Gary. Ash and May shared a look while Jimmy moaned and climbed back into the Starly to keep Ellie company.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Jake stumbled through the shifting sands, his eyes scouring the area around him for any signs of life, his extrasensory perception severely weakened from the movement all around him. Rebekah was making little progress, having no reference of direction and wandering around in large circles. Only Gary seemed to be making any progress, his goggles protecting his eyes from the scratching sand, a compass in hand to point which way he was going. However Gary was having difficulty hearing anything, the howling wind distracting him. It seemed as if it was a person screaming and not just wind that blew around him.

"Hello!?" he yelled. "Mizu are you out there!?"

The winds calmed down slightly as Gary shouted and he relaxed. Only to be blown of his feet as the winds intensified even more. Gary spun through the air before hitting the sand on his back, rolling backwards off a dune and tumbling down the sandy slope. He hit the bottom with a thud and groaned. His head was pounding and the surroundings seemed awfully quiet compared to the whistling winds above him. It appeared he had fallen into a sheltered area, which he praised Mew for his luck. Gary finally got up off the ground and had a look around. There was a tiny little lake… or pond in the middle of the clearing, earth instead of sand under his boots. He spotted a palm tree next to the pond, small bananas growing from the top, green in color at the moment. There was a shape at the base of the palm and Gary became excited, rushing over. It appeared to be a bundle of cloth from what Gary could see as he made his way over to it.

"Mizu?" he asked.

He reached the base of the palm and shook the bundle of cloth with a shaking hand.

"Who's there?" came a muffled voice from the cloth.

"I-It's me Mizu, Gary! We're here!" Gary exclaimed. "Your friends are here!"

The bundle shifted slightly and began to rise off the ground. Gary realized that it was not a bundle but in fact a large robe, dusty grey in color. The figure inside the robe was hidden from view in the shadows but Gary almost seemed to know that it was Mizu.

"Friends?"

"Yes Mizu… we're here now. We've come to find you so we can get your help in finding Angel," Gary explained.

"So… no one came to find me just because they missed me?" the figure asked, disappointment oozing from her voice.

The robe fell to the ground and Gary jumped back in surprise. Mizu had definitely changed over the past year and a half. She now had silvery purple cat-like ears emerging from under her long, pink, wild hair. A single tipped purple cat tail with a gold ring of fur around it near the end was poking from under her medium length purple skirt. However it was her eyes that Gary was drawn to. Instead of their normal amethyst color, they were a dull obsidian, dark and cold. Mizu had lost her warmth…

* * *

**Dun dun dun dun! Oh dear, things are picking up, but they don't seem to be going so well for now. I beg for forgiveness at the late update but I've been cramming in Holiday Homework and have been staying at my new holiday home… a caravan in Eyemouth, which… unfortunately, doesn't have any internet access. Anyways I'm going to be getting on with the next character's chapter… Rebekah's! As I said, each chapter will reveal more about the plot until I've done each one. So keep reading and don't miss a thing, it's all important.**

**Your's sincerely, Kgmck177**


	29. Chapter 29: Rebekah: Alone

**Dark Angel**

**Hiya guys, ****it's me again; see me working my ass of for all of you! I have the next chapter for you here, hopefully it'll be done soon as I'm typing this. Ok first and foremost, don't flame me because of ripping stuff off, this chapter for Rebekah, is a tribute to the movie "Short Circuit 2" because of its total greatness as a movie. It's basically a replay of the movie but from Rebekah's perspective. Saying so, I do not claim ownership of the movie, and any and all claims to the contrary shall be ignored and pwned, lol. 3**

**Rebekah: I get the feeling I'm about to become a lot more miserable.**

* * *

**Chapter 29: Rebekah – Alone**

_Day 1: Keeping up the pace_

Rebekah awoke, feeling as though someone had shot her head open and roughly glued it together. She felt warm, though could not feel the texture of clothes on her, she couldn't feel anything around her. She opened her eyes to see a field of green before her vision. Bubbles slowly trailed up past her in her field of vision, making her believe she was in some kind of liquid. She looked down and noticed some kind of breathing mask covering her mouth, with a pipe coming from it, presumably to allow an oxygen supply to reach her. Past that she could see her own bare breasts, indicating she was naked. Feeling embarrassed and vulnerable, Rebekah attempted to conceal herself, becoming frightened. She heard something on the edge of her senses, like a voice coming through a lot of static and from across a football field. She looked up and spotted a vaguely familiar face, one of an old man, possibly in his early to late fifties. There was more noise and suddenly she felt as though a plug had been pulled around her, the strange green liquid being sucked away from her. She felt her feet lightly touch the bottom, of what was becoming apparent, a tank. She knelt there, her left arms trying to cover her breasts, the other covering her more sensitive area. She blushed heavily when the glass in front of her lifted away and she found herself in a brightly lit room.

"Wh-where am I?" Rebekah croaked, her voice a little sore.

"Ah you're awake. Good, good, it seems you weren't too badly hurt. Are you feeling alright young miss?" the old man said, his voice was warm and kind.

Rebekah attempted to smile but the cold room temperature was not helping her mood any. She could feel herself reacting in embarrassing ways to the temperature and further tried to hide herself. The old man seemed to notice her predicament. He blushed slightly but seemed otherwise unaware, and managed to keep his gaze unwaveringly on her eyes, which Rebekah found herself respecting him for. Back in her hometown, people would have leered at her prone figure, eyeballing her and making her feel even worse. She remembered many times when it did happen and was glad that she didn't seem to feel so exposed in this man's presence.

"Oh my goodness yes, where are my manners!? Tracey, could you please bring the young miss her clothes?" he called.

Rebekah found herself standing up and letting her arms come away to rest at her sides, her instincts telling her that this man meant no harm.

"Who are you?" Rebekah asked suspiciously, her voice back to normal.

"Ah, you can call me Oak, Professor Oak. You're in Pallet Town of the Kanto Region," he explained.

"What?! That can't be right! I'm in Hoenn!" Rebekah exclaimed.

Professor Oak seemed to think for a moment.

"I assure you young miss that you are in Kanto… perhaps you went through some kind of transportation? It's not impossible for such things to happen," Oak reasoned.

Rebekah stopped to think, remembering her fight with Elektra. She remembered the lightning bolt hitting her, though she felt no pain. There was only darkness and then she was crawling out of some bushes, only to be nearly run over by this old man. Rebekah blinked as she remembered where she had seen Professor Oak, on the bicycle.

"So… So I'm in a different region now? Where's my stuff, my pokemon?" She asked.

"Well you didn't have anything but your clothes on you when you were brought here. Maybe you dropped your things outside, where I found you?" Oak reasoned again.

"Maybe…" Rebekah murmured.

She heard a sharp intake of breath and turned to the source. In the doorway to the room there were three people, one of which she recognized as the 'Tracey' boy that was with Professor oak, and two people she did not recognize. One was a girl of around a year or so younger than her, with orange hair tied messily to the side in a large ponytail. There was also a woman who appeared to be in her late twenties, with auburn hair and gleaming hazel eyes. All three people were staring at her in surprise, making Rebekah feel suddenly very exposed. With a cry of embarrassment, Rebekah fell to her knees, attempting to cover herself with her hands, tears forming in her eyes. Her face burned with shame at being seen in such a state.

"Here."

Rebekah looked up to see Tracey standing over her, a small pile of clothes in his arms. _Her clothes…_

"You brought these for me?" Rebekah asked.

"Y-Yeah… it's no p-problem," he stammered.

Rebekah's face glowed with embarrassment as she took the offered clothes and dressed into them in under a second. She was just pulling the edge of her shirt down when she heard another gasp around the room. This time however everyone was staring at her in shock, Professor Oak even looked vaguely amazed. Rebekah blinked and looked at them, wondering why they were acting so strangely. As well as that, she was starting to get annoyed at how she didn't know where she was.

"So, can I try and find my stuff now?" Rebekah asked Prof. Oak.

"Sure, let's go. Oh yes, and Deliah? Please just make yourself at home until me and this young lady return. She seems to have lost some things," Oak said suddenly.

The woman with the auburn hair smiled sweetly and lifted up a small bag she was holding.

"I found these things near one of my bushes yesterday. Perhaps they belong to you, Miss-?"

Rebekah gave her a confused look. The woman seemed to sadden for a moment as Rebekah stayed silent. Suddenly the girl with the orange hair spoke up.

"She's asking your name?"

"Oh! Um… yeah, sorry… I'm Rebekah… Rebekah Torche," Rebekah mumbled.

"Ah I see! Yes Miss Rebekah, these might be yours?" the woman now known as Deliah asked.

Deliah walked over to the nearby metal table, which seemed to have some parts of it covered in ash. She placed the bag down and began to empty the contents onto the table. There was a small pile of what appeared to metal shavings that were pink in colour. There was also a bracelet with small black rocks on the string that Rebekah recognized as the only thing she had left of her mother's. It was the last link she had to her family, whoever they were. Rebekah had grown up in her hometown never knowing the love of two parents. She remembered as far back as when she was only five years old and a little Ponyta-morph. She was picked on by much larger kids, both male and female. She was beaten by the adults, spat upon and doused with freezing cold water. As Rebekah grew up she learned to use her power of speed to avoid the cruelties of the people around her. She befriended the wild Fire-types and they became for loyal friends, protecting her as she slept and in return she helped to feed them, thieving as much food as she needed from others. Only when she turned 15 did she decide to become a pokemon trainer and get away from her life. Still, it was hard on the road as well as in a town. She had to depend on nature to sustain her, drinking from rivers and bathing under little waterfalls, having only two sets of clothes. She ate wild Pecha and Oran berries and travelled until she had come across Angel and Jake in the forest. She had been chased out of the nearby village by the villagers and was again beaten, into unconsciousness, however she was spared when they decided to torch the part of the forest she was in, not knowing that she was immune to fire. Rebekah stopped her reminiscing when she saw her pokeballs, cracked and sparking, rolling onto the desk.

"Noo!" she cried. "What happened to them!? Was it the lightning?"

"You were struck by lightning?" Tracey asked sceptically.

"That's how I ended up here… I think. Don't some Electric types use lightning for transportation? Like… what was its name again?" Rebekah trailed off.

"Raikou?" Prof. Oak added.

"Yeah that thing!" Rebekah exclaimed. "Anyways you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me," Tracey declared, his arms folded.

"Ok… I'm part of a small group of… talented teenagers who have a personal grudge with Team Rocket, one way or another. We work to stop them in their latest experiments… one of their agents managed to… apparently separate me from the others by a whole region using Electric-type based teleportation," Rebekah explained.

"Team Rocket? What are they up to now? As far as I know they're a bunch of bumbling buffoons, especially that Cassidy and Bob," Tracey replied.

"Team Rocket is far better organized than you seem to believe. As far as to what they are doing, well take a look at me. I'm not exactly human am I?" Rebekah explained.

"Yes, yes. You're only part human, you're also part pokemon. But Team Rocket is doing this? Perhaps by genetic manipulation?" Oak asked.

"Exactly… but enough, can we fix these pokeballs? My pokemon might be hurt!" Rebekah declared.

Oak snapped to action, picking up the pokeballs and pulling a small rectangular device from his pocket. It had a spiky protrusion at one end which glowed red when Prof Oak moved it close to one of the pokeballs. It gave a few bleeps and Prof Oak grimaced. He put away the device and placed the pokeballs down on the table, his eyes downcast, unable to look at Rebekah. Rebekah felt a sense of dread and foreboding wash over her and grabbed what she could tell was her Rapidash's ball and opened it. With a flash and a spark the ball released the pokemon and Rebekah screamed. She screamed until she ran out of air in her lungs and passed out on the ground, her eyes rolling up into the back of her head. The red-headed girl felt bile rise in her throat at the sight and Deliah shuddered, but remained steadfast. However Tracey yelped and felt the urge to throw up become too strong for him to resist. As it was, he managed to get to a nearby lab sink before emptying his stomach. Rebekah's Rapidash was almost unrecognisable as that pokemon. It's fair, pale skin was charred black and cracked, it was lying on its side with a small amount of smoke rising from its carcass. Its mane and tail of flames was none existent and its eyes were pure white, dull and lifeless. It was clearly dead…

"Oh my…." Prof Oak murmured.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Rebekah awoke with a start on a couch in a nicely toned room. Sitting on a similar couch across from her was Prof Oak, Tracey and Deliah. The red-head was no where to be seen. Rebekah was on her feet in a flash, her instincts telling her to flee from this place and away from the bad thoughts it gave her. Yet the mournful look on the three others faces gave Rebekah pause. Rebekah felt like crying again and destroying everything in sight, yet she knew that it would get her nowhere. Instead she tried to remain as reasonable as she could.

"They… They're all dead aren't they?" She asked hoarsely.

"I'm sorry Rebekah, there's nothing we could've done to save them…" Oak replied sadly, his voice and face seeming older than before.

"I've known most of them for almost nine years… they were my closest friends, my only family I've ever known… And now they've been taken from me!" She ended up shouting her last few words.

She felt herself heat up and the couch she was standing near began to smoke slightly. Oak looked at her curiously and put two and two together, using her physical appearance and personality to work out just what she was.

"You're part Rapidash right? Is that how you can generate so much heat?" Oak asked, trying to clarify his theories. "How is this even possible?"

Rebekah seemed to calm down slightly and sat back down, hot tears now rolling down her cheeks. They were gone… her friends, protectors, family. They were gone, and it was all because of Team Rocket!!! Rebekah felt anger well up inside her, the intensity of which she had never felt before. She felt like destroying the entirety of Team Rocket herself, painfully and slowly. However she had to calm down, she might need Oak's help to find her other friends, and it wouldn't make a good first impression if she combusted the furniture. Swallowing thickly, Rebekah nodded to his questions.

"How fast can you move? Do you know your top speed?" Oak asked again.

Rebekah shook her head, no. Oak smiled at this and shared a look with Tracey, who seemed to understand without words and began to smile as well.

"Perhaps you would like to find out?" Tracey asked.

Rebekah looked up, her amber eyes shining with tears. She liked to run; it was her greatest talent and the thing that made her unique, besides having a horn sticking out of her head. She remembered Flannery, the Gym Leader of Lavaridge, who had hair of a similar color to hers, however she had dyed her hair, unlike Rebekah's which was natural. Rebekah nodded to Tracey query and was led out of the sitting room by Prof Oak and Tracey. Deliah stayed behind, saying she'd rather make lunch and clean up a little. Down the simple hallways Rebekah was led into a large room with a blue tiled floor. Expect that there was a large, rectangular patch that was black and made from the same materials as a treadmill track.

"What's this?" Rebekah asked quietly, still feeling sad.

"It's just like a regular treadmill. We use it to measure a pokemon's fitness, however the track doesn't' wear out because instead of rollers, it runs with magnets, meaning it won't have a maximum speed that it can go. You can use this and run like you normally do, show us what you can do!" Tracey replied, giving her a little push.

Rebekah stood on the large track, noticing that she had a lot of room to manoeuvre in. Tracey and Oak stood ahead of her, just in front of the edge of the mat, next to a large metal box with a display on it, a picture of Rebekah's footprints on it. Rebekah took a step forward, noticing that she gained no distance, the floor moving underneath her. The screen she could see tracked her feet, showing the speed at which she just moved and how her feet moved as well. Smiling a little, barely an upward curl of the corner of her mouth, Rebekah set of at a light jog, the floor moving in response, stopping her from moving across the room. Rebekah glanced at the panels and saw that she was moving at around 40mph but she was barely straining herself. Rebekah shifted up a gear and was now running at 200mph, her feet blurring over the black mat she ran on. Prof Oak was astonished, as his open mouth suggested. Tracey blinked and fumbled with some controls, showing Rebekah's current speed in bold and the top speed that she reached. Rebekah was beginning to enjoy herself and kicked up another notch, levelling off at 553mph, not far off the sound barrier. Her feet were no longer individual sounds on the mat, but a continuous noise of footfalls.

"Hey, hey, am not even sweating yet!" Rebekah called to Tracey and Oak, who were positioned in front of her, along with the machine.

"She's incredible! No real Rapidash could run at this speed!" Oak exclaimed, his eyes shining with excitement. "And better yet, you're not even at your top speed!"

Rebekah decided to try and reach her top speed, her ring glowing brightly as she felt a surge of power reach her legs. The mat seemed to squeal slightly as twin burn marks appeared on its surface, indicating where Rebekah's feet had been. She glanced at the panel and noticed as had broken the sound barrier and was moving at a top speed of 790mph. Still Rebekah felt she could go faster… _'I wish my pokemon were here to see me try to make a record for myself. I have nothing to my name I could really say is mine, but a land speed record might be nice…' _she thought. Rebekah surged forwards, her feet almost literally flying across the black rubber. She felt herself getting hotter and her vision started going red. Still she kept pushing herself, not noticing what was happening.

"Professor look! She's turning red!" Tracey gasped.

"Look at her eyes too!" Oak replied, equally shocked.

Rebekah's eyes were steadily going black like coals. Her entire eye was going dark, yet she could still see perfectly clear. The two men watched as, though she was just opening her eye, a red and black iris appeared, glowing like burning coals. Smoke was rising from Rebekah's blurring limbs; in fact, her entire body was almost a blur. Rebekah's skin was going dark red again like in her fight with Elektra and fire stated to engulf her hands, burning like a pair of large rocks. An aura of red, glowing heat enveloped Rebekah's form as the computer began sparking. Tracey panicked and looked at the screen his eyes almost bugging out of his head.

"She's going at 1530mph Professor! She's moving as fast as twice the speed of sound!" he cried.

"680 metres per second! Good lord!" Oak exclaimed, turning back to the rushing teen. Oak realized that the smoke rising from her was probably her evaporating… or burning sweat. "Rebekah slow down! The machine can't take this speed!"

Rebekah heard him as though from a great distance and began to slow down, slowly at first but with her speed dropping all the time. When she finally stopped, she was out of breath, her hands on her knees panting for air to refill her lungs. Rebekah's legs ached as they never ached before; she had never had this much of a workout in her life. Even if Oak had let her go on longer, she might have just collapsed in a few seconds. Rebekah stepped off the treadmill with great difficulty, her legs seeming to fight her movements. Rebekah, Oak and Tracey all left the room after recording the essential data, such as top speed, room temperature and a few other minor facts. Rebekah was led back to the room with the couches, were she promptly collapsed onto one.

"Are you alright Rebekah?" Tracey asked at last.

"I…I'm fine… just n-need to get my… breath back," she gasped back.

Deliah re-entered the room, a plate of triangle sandwiches in her hands, looking oblivious to the state of Rebekah, whose skin and hands, along with her eyes, were back to normal. Setting the plate down Rebekah sat up straight and set her hands in her lap, her breathing back to normal. Rebekah had only rudimentary knowledge of manners, although she was naturally polite, she wasn't sure how to act around people. Deliah noticed her unease and smiled gently, picking up a sandwich and offering it to her.

"Here, have a sandwich, help yourself."

Rebekah reluctantly took the offered food and nibbled on it a little.

"There. Why not tell us about yourself dear?" Deliah asked.

"Well… what should I say?" Rebekah asked, confused.

"Well, do you have likes or dislikes? What are your hobbies or dreams for the future?" Deliah replied.

"I… I like to explore, to run around and have fun. I don't like people who mistreat me just because I'm different than everyone else… I like people who are kind, I don't mind them being rough, and I like to play around…" Rebekah said this with a small blush on her face. "I guess my dream is to live a life, where I'm equal to everyone else. I guess I also like to sleep."

Deliah's smile faded slightly.

"Do you like to read or write?" she asked.

Rebekah tensed and suddenly became silent, not looking Deliah in the eye. Deliah immediately sensed what Rebekah's answer was, even without words being spoken. Rebekah's actions said it all… _she didn't know how_. Deliah grimaced and sat down next to the girl, putting an arm around her shoulder. Rebekah felt relaxed in the older woman's small embrace and felt her tension slide away.

"I don't know how to read… and I've never written before. My parents weren't around, I never knew them. I lived alone and abused all my life, making friends with my pokemon to keep me company and protect me. Then when I turned 15 I decided to leave and travel around Hoenn. I was chased out of a village near my 16th birthday and was knocked unconscious in a forest… they set it on fire but it wouldn't hurt me, though they didn't know that. I was rescued from suffocating though when a girl named Angel and a boy called Jake came and pulled me out, dousing the fire. We then began a journey across Hoenn, meeting more friends… Jimmy, Mizu, May, Gary, Ash-," Rebekah explained.

"You've met Ash? How is he?" Deliah interrupted. "I hope he's behaving himself and not getting into trouble."

Rebekah blinked.

"Do you know him?" she asked.

"He's my son!" Deliah declared proudly. "He means the world to me."

Rebekah turned away and felt tears begin to gather in her eyes. She wished that someone, anyone would say that to her and make her feel wanted. Make her feel as tough she had a true purpose, as though she belonged. No one, not even Jimmy had made her feel that way though. Rebekah tried hard not to cry as Deliah noticed this and became worried.

"What's wrong dear?" she asked, her motherly concern kicking in. "Was it something I sai-."

Deliah knew what the matter was as soon as she said it. Rebekah hadn't known her parents and hadn't felt the love she needed in her childhood. Deliah looked into her amber eyes and saw true loneliness in those fiery orbs, glistening with tears. Drawing Rebekah close, Deliah held her in a warm hug, letting the poor teen cry into her shoulder and let out the years of pain. Rebekah felt her walls of repression cracking and the floodgates overflowing again and this time she felt no need to try and stop them. She let out all the pain she was holding in and held Deliah to her like a lifeline. Rebekah felt warmth in this woman, as though Deliah was her mother. This was impossible though, but Rebekah toyed with the thought, enjoying the sensation. As the tears began to recede after many minutes, Rebekah sniffed and released her hold on Deliah, sitting up and wiping at her eyes. Her hands still trembled slightly as she turned to face the woman who made her feel truly loved.

"Thank you…" she whispered.

"Not at all dear. Now then, why don't I find you something to read?" Deliah replied, a sweet smile gracing her features.

Rebekah smiled back, a genuine smile. Things were looking up a little…

0o0o0o0o0o0

_Day 57: On an Errand_

Rebekah happily walked along the path towards Viridian City, examining the wildlife as she went. She had been staying with Deliah Ketchum in Ash's room for the past two months, learning how to read and write, also learning about other general things she didn't know about. Rebekah's favourite topic of discussion however, was pyrotechnics. Rebekah was a person who just could not resist a good explosion when she saw one. As well as that Rebekah had taken to daily exercise at Professor Oak's lab up on the hill. She used various machines designed for pokemon use and also used a few items from a human gym that were scattered around. She had also joined Deliah in a few ballet lessons, proving to be a natural.

"I wonder… how much higher would the sea level be if every ship in the world set out at once?" Rebekah asked herself.

She was prone to asking either herself or others, strange questions that she didn't really need the answer for. It was just very way of expressing curiosity. What had Prof Oak incredulous was that as soon as Rebekah was able to read well enough, she skimmed through a standard dictionary in ten seconds flat. Apparently her eyes were capable of keeping up with her great speed, relaying information at incredible speeds. Oak theorized that her eyes would have to do that if they were to keep up with her surroundings while she was running, otherwise she wouldn't be able to see where she was going and would most likely crash and hurt herself. _'I could read a whole bookstore in about thirty minutes,' _Rebekah thought happily. She enjoyed curling up in a corner of Ash's room with a book in hand, reading slowly and thumbing through the pages at a normal person's pace. Rebekah found it very relaxing and enjoyed some of the books she had found in Ash's room.

"So Rebekah, what will you do when we find word of your friends?" Tracey asked on her left.

Rebekah was currently walking to Viridian City with Tracey, on an errand for Prof Oak, as there was a delivery at the local market with his name on it. It was supposedly one of the new pokeballs made in Sinnoh, this one able to heal a caught pokemon of injuries and status afflictions as soon as it was caught. It was aptly named the "Heal Ball" as a result and Oak was determined to examine how it worked in closer detail. Normally Rebekah would've gone on her own however any errands she ran for Oak had always been within the confines of Pallet Town, where just about everyone seemed friendly and unjudging of her appearance. However this time Rebekah was going to a larger metropolitan area, without Angel or the others to protect her emotionally. Tracey then volunteered himself to go with her, which Rebekah found to be rather sweet of him, even though it as painfully obvious that he was attracted to her.

"Well… I'd hate to leave; I mean Pallet Town feels more like home than any other place I've ever been to. But I miss my friends a lot and I need to be there for them, they've never done anything to me to deserve any less," Rebekah replied.

Tracey nodded, knowing that to Rebekah, friends were everything to her. On that first day when her pokemon were found dead in their balls, they had a large funeral for all her pokemon, her Rapidash, her Arcanine, her Rhydon, her Charizard, her Quilava and finally her Relicanth. Rebekah cried throughout the entire proceedings and stayed at the gravesite for almost two days straight before Mrs. Ketchum finally dragged her away from it and homed her with herself and 'Mimey'. Rebekah cheered up significantly with a motherly figure in her life and, though Rebekah was a complete stranger, Deliah treated her as though Rebekah was her own daughter.

"I love my new 'family' but I have responsibilities as well, to my friends," Rebekah added, her voice becoming slightly depressed.

"I know what you mean. I used to travel alongside Ash myself," Tracey replied, full of enthusiasm. "He was and still is a good friend who cared for his pokemon."

"You travelled with Ash?" Rebekah asked, surprised.

"Yeah. We were going through the Orange Archipagelo together. It was quite an adventure I tell you! The Orange islands are located just south of Kanto, near the equator so it's always quite warm in that region," Tracey answered.

"Sounds nice… maybe I'll go there someday," Rebekah replied wistfully.

As they spoke Viridian City slowly came into view, a bustling hive of merchanting and socializing. Rebekah suddenly felt anxious about being there; however Tracey intervened by giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Rebekah smiled weakly as they gradually made their way inside the city. Rebekah was surprised to notice that most people were too busy to really see anyone else. It was as though the citizens had become blind to everything but their own agenda, seeing no one and nothing around them. Rebekah grinned slightly as she and Tracey found the store with Oak's Parcel (GB Reference) and they walked inside. Rebekah looked around, gentle music playing in the background, attempting to drown out the busy chatter of the customers swarming the shop. Tracey walked over to the counter and began to speak to the receptionist person, while Rebekah suddenly got the urge to explore a little. Weaving through the aisles Rebekah came to a clothes section for girls, with dresses and other garments for all occasions. Rebekah smiled a little and browsed around, her ears attentive for anything around her. However her mind started to wander as she came to a section devoted towards books. She picked a nearby book on a wooden shelf entitled "The Houndoom of the Baskervilles". With practised ease Rebekah flashed through the pages, pausing to try and figure out for herself who had committed the murder. She continued to read and was happy that it was indeed not the Houndoom that had independently committed the murder, but its vicious trainer, who then died by drowning in a river while escaping through a thick fog. The great Detectives Sherlock Holmes and Watson had solved the mystery surrounding the 'Ghost Houndoom'.

"Hmm… so that's how it was. A nice story…" Rebekah muttered to herself.

She continued to pore through the books in seconds, placing each one carefully back in its place on the shelf once she had finished. Unbeknownst to Rebekah, a security guard had noticed her readings and began to make his way over to her, planning on making her pay for the books she was reading.

"Excuse me miss? Normally people read books _after_ they've bought them," the man stated.

Rebekah turned around, a sheepish expression on her face.

"I'm sorry sir… it's just I love reading," she replied, her face slightly red.

The guard, however, was not listening but focusing on her features. He gazed at her horn, her flame coloured hair and her deep amber eyes before his face contorted with disgust. Rebekah found herself being grabbed by the arm and led out of the shop. Confused, Rebekah felt hurt when the guard forcefully expelled her from the shop, with threats of violence if _'her kind' _came back. She sighed and sat down on a bench, near the entrance and waited for Tracey to come back out. Rebekah nearly forgot she was holding something, realizing that the guard had inadvertently caused her to steal a book. Rebekah had half a mind to return it, but decided against it, knowing that the staff would probably not want it back.

"Hiya. You're a pretty lady."

Rebekah looked up to see a small girl, around five or six years old, looking up at her with large, soulful eyes. Rebekah felt her heart melt at such cuteness and forgot about the prejudice of the guard for a moment.

"Why thank you. You're a polite little girl," Rebekah responded.

"Katie? Katie? **Katie!!** What are you doing near that thing!?!"

A middle-aged woman ran over to where Rebekah and the girl were positioned and roughly grabbed the girl's arm. Rebekah watched, anger building up as the girl began to cry at the force of which, Rebekah assumed the woman to be her mother; she began dragging the poor child away from her. The woman just continued to shout at her child, promising punishment going so close to such a filthy creature. Rebekah felt herself stand up automatically and seemed to follow after the woman on auto-pilot. She gained the distance in seconds and grasped the woman's right shoulder in an iron grip. The woman let go of her daughter in shock as Rebekah forcefully turned her to face her. The woman looked at her with a sneer, repulsion clearly displayed on her features. Rebekah felt her heart and eyes go cold.

"Such actions are unbefitting of a parent," she stated emotionlessly.

"And what does a freak like you kn-," the woman started.

Rebekah backhanded her across the face so hard that the woman was thrown off her feet and slammed into a nearby wall. She collapsed in a heap while Rebekah seethed with anger, her violent red aura beginning to form. Rebekah's eyes began changing to their burning form and she turned to walk away, only to be stopped by a large crowd. Rebekah ignored them and attempted to push past, only to be pushed back into what was becoming a ring around her. The little girl was still crying, sitting on the hard ground, ignored by the crowd.

"Hey, look at what this thing did to that woman!" one voice came from the middle of the crowd.

"Is she still alive? That thing must have killed her!" another voice came from Rebekah's left.

"Let's kill that freak too!"

"Yeah!"

Rebekah felt angry, ashamed and most of all… alone. Her body temperature began to soar and the air around her began heating up drastically as Rebekah slowly began to lose her grip on her powers. The crowd pushed in until Rebekah was completely surrounded, being shoved and pushed by hands all around her. People around her reeled back as Rebekah's aura burnt them badly, scalding their skin and blistering their fingers. Rebekah closed her eyes and clutched at her head as a pain shot through her, her heat beating faster and faster. Rebekah's breath came in short, heaving gasps as the glow around her flickered dangerously and began to recede.

"No…" she whispered.

With that simple word Rebekah's power exploded outwards violently, throwing the entire crowd to the ground, and an aura of blazing energy completely surrounded her figure. Rebekah lost control of what little restraint she had as her feet slowly drifted off the ground. The air around her began sizzling and her eyes burned brightly, like twin raging infernos. Tracey stepped out of the shop with a box in his hands, to see Rebekah burning down the middle of the street, around thirty people on the ground around her, many too afraid to get back up. As was expecting of a person watching his friend destroy her surroundings, he did the manliest thing he could… he begged her to stop.

"Rebekah, no!" he cried. "Stop, please!"

Tracey's words did nothing to soothe her as Rebekah let out an angry cry and threw one of her hands out at a nearby hotdog stall. The owner of the stall dived aside as a fireball erupted from Rebekah's hand and shattered the side, making his hotdogs extra crispy. Tracey ducked as Rebekah shot another fireball, this one aimed at the store he had just left. The mini sun flew over his head and set alight the book section, the security guard from before now trying to douse the blaze with a fire extinguisher. Rebekah continued like this, firing flames from her hand now and then, causing damage yet she was yet to actually hurt anyone. Tracey knew enough was enough when Rebekah used both of her hands to create a stream of flames to nearly melt a nearby car, the petrol tank exploding and showering people nearby with debris. Thankfully no one was near the vehicle when it went off…

"Marill I choose you!" Tracey shouted, letting fly one of his pokeballs. "Use Water Gun!"

A small blue mouse type creature with a white stomach, round blue ears and a ball shaped tail appeared. Being the size of a basketball, it was surprising that such a small creature could create so much water as it blasted a great jet of said element at Rebekah's burning body. Rebekah screeched with rage as her flames were put out from the Water-type attack. The teenage volcano fell to the ground, exhausted and soaking wet, glaring at everything around her. Tracey returned Marill with thanks and ran over to her.

"Rebekah, what's the matter!?" he yelped.

Rebekah threw Tracey a dirty look and got up; ignoring that Tracey could see through her white shirt and see her underwear. He blushed as he saw her black bra; he wasn't expecting it to be trimmed with lace. Rebekah stalked off, back in the direction of Pallet Town, Tracey following quickly in her wake. The Pokemon Watcher used his observational skills to watch his newest find in this young woman. Rebekah did not look angry anymore, her face was a painting of sorrow and pain. Tracey felt the need to hug her but held back as she still radiated a sputtering aura of heat, though it was small and quickly shrinking. Tears fell from Rebekah's eyes as she remembered the words of the people around her as she stepped out of the city boundaries and onto the country road, separating Viridian City with Pallet Town.

"What will the Professor think about this?" Tracey murmured to himself, out of earshot.

0o0o0o0o0o0

_Day 290: Short Fuse (yep it's starting, the tribute to Short Circuit 2!!! 3)_

"Grand Festival?" Rebekah asked blankly.

"Yeah, it's about Pokemon Contests. The Pokemon League of Contests!" Tracey exclaimed excitedly. "And there's one happening here, in Kanto!"

Rebekah blinked and shrugged, uninterested in Tracey's babbling. It was almost a year since she had come to Pallet Town and she had received word from Professor Oak that Gary had contacted him. Apparently he was asking if "Gramps" had seen anyone matching various descriptions, one of which was Rebekah's. Oak had been reluctant to let her know, wanting her to stay a little longer. Rebekah was now aged 17 (yes 17 people) years old and had grown a few inches taller, now standing at over Tracey's formidable 6 foot of height, with her own height of 6 foot 3 inches. Her horn had grown slightly longer and pointier, making it that much harder to hide, which Rebekah had no given up completely. She wore a sleeveless red turtleneck with black wristbands around her… wrists. She also wore black biking leather trousers that were guaranteed not to burn out as she ran, being very flexible and durable considering what they were made from. She wore large black boots under these with large soles that were made from hard material but were rather thin. The reasons for this was that it allowed for more spring in each of her strides but the downside was that it would destroy her leg muscles had she been a normal human.

"Tracey, you know I don't like Contests that much," Rebekah replied, tucking a loose strand of hair behind one of her ear, which had become slightly pointy as she aged.

"I know, I know, but I'm so damn excited!" Tracey squealed. "So many pokemon working in their prime condition that I can sketch!"

"You know… what you just said reeked of bestiality," Rebekah muttered humourlessly.

"Ah, ha, ha, ha… you wound me Rebekah. And here I thought we were going steady," Tracey responded sarcastically.

The two teens had found that insulting each other and making sexual jokes were their way of showing affection. It had started when Tracey had woken up with a hangover the morning after Rebekah's 17th birthday and stumbled into the bathroom to splash himself with cold water. However, he hadn't realized that there was running water and walked in on Rebekah who was just stepping out of the shower unit, totally nude and soaking wet, droplets of water running tantalizingly down her firm, large breasts. Tracey merely glanced at her and went to the sink, while she stared wide-eyed at him, in shock at his sudden appearance. Tracey left the bathroom without a word and did not remember the incident until he had completely sobered up. From then on, Rebekah made a point of teasing him about it, saying that he had denied himself a real treat. This was where their banter was spawned and from then on they became closer as friends, until they were like brother and sister.

Rebekah giggled at Tracey's witty response to her insult and playfully punched his shoulder. She had learned to control her strength over time and had toned her body until it was as solid as a rock, but not dragged down with excessive muscle. Her body was still thin, lithe, and supple from her ballet classes with Deliah and from her home-practiced gymnastics. Rebekah and Tracey were in Tracey's new car, being driven to Vermillion City by Tracey himself, having just passed his Driving Test a month ago. They had decided to celebrate by him treating Rebekah to VIP tickets to the Grand Festival which was not being held in the Indigo Plateau because of an unfortunate bout of flooding from severe rain.

"So what's the prize for this whole Festival thing?" Rebekah asked as they passed a black jeep.

"It's supposedly this great crystal trophy called the Ribbon Cup. Worth it's weight in gold because the thing's so damn heavy and made of diamond," Tracey replied. "Security's always tight when it's being transported."

"Pfft, I could run in and out with the damn thing before you could say 'Let's get busy'," Rebekah scoffed.

0o0o0o0o0o0

A large cargo ship pulled up along side the Vermillion dockside as a gangway was transferred up to the cargo hatch of the great transport. From the steps came a man, with a large chest in his arms, handcuffed to one of his wrists. He was dressed in a red suit and had a serious, yet kind face. This was Mr. Contesta, the manager of the Pokemon Contest Committee, and a leading figure in the world of Contests. Behind him, a shorter man came from the ship, his wrist handcuffed to the other side of the chest. This man was short and had a rather plain, oblivious face, with narrow eyes and a benign smile crossing his lips. He was dressed in a grey suit much like Mr Contesta's. This man was called Mr Tsukizo, the leader of the Pokemon Fan Club. The pair of them walked down the gangway to the dockside, where an armoured van was waiting, armed guards surrounding it and watching the screaming crowds. The two men boarded the vehicle and it drove swiftly away, escorted by three patrol cars piloted by Vermillion City's three best Officer Jenny's. The escort was led to a large skyscraper class of building, where yet another crowd watched in awe as the owner of the high-tech bank came out to greet the two prominent figures of Pokemon Coordinating. They were quickly ushered inside and out of sight…

"That Ribbon Cup will be mine, whether I win it or steal it!... Yes, stealing it would cost even less effort on my part and I would make a small fortune on the black market," a high pitched, slightly feminine voice murmured.

The speaker was a bizarrely dressed man, decked out in a green outfit, reminiscent of a Cacturne. He was tall and had long violet hair as well as round, violet eyes that burned with an intensity as he glared at where Mr's Contesta and Tsukizo had been, wishing longingly for the chest they carried between them. Harley was a Pokemon Coordinator from Hoenn, now competing in the Grand Festival, as he won his way through five Contests to get the necessary amount of Ribbons for entry. He watched the surroundings around himself as a multitude of cars passed him, travelling along the motorway into the main of Vermillion City, where the Gym Leader, Lt. Surge, had offered to have his Gym host the Grand Festival. Harley scowled to himself as he stood up, walking off into the crowd.

Meanwhile…

"Well… this is interesting," Rebekah stated, a droplet of sarcasm hanging in the air.

Tracey sighed, knowing that she would be hard to please. Tracey had managed to get a hold of the tickets for the Grand Festival, in exchange for helping his contact in Vermillion check the shipments coming in. Tracey's friend was a young man, around his own age, named Edward. Edward's job was to check the shipments coming in and leaving Vermillion for any sign of illegal items or substances. As such, his job gave him two free tickets to see the Grand Festival, considering the circumstances. Rebekah and Tracey were residing within his house… a rather large workshop-like place with a hammock, a single bed and a TV. The rest of the floor space was taken up by large benches with power tools, building equipment and a few general items that Rebekah couldn't name. Rebekah was sitting near the TV, while Tracey paced holes in the hard, cement floor. After what seemed like forever in Rebekah's opinion the large double doors opened and a young, green haired man stepped in. He had green eyes matching his hair and was wearing blue construction overalls.

"Hi there Tracey! Long time no see," Edward exclaimed loudly, his voice filled with enthusiasm. "Who's your friend? She your lady-in-waiting?"

Tracey went red.

"No!... I mean, she isn't but I wouldn't mind… that is… but she isn't…" Tracey rambled, trying to explain without hurting Rebekah's feelings.

Said morph was watching Tracey closely, attempting to get an idea of why he was attracted to her. It couldn't be for her appearance, no one liked Rebekah for that. It was either "freak" or "monster whore" for her. Apart from the little girl, no one had ever told her she looked anything better than hideous. Tracey also couldn't be attracted to her for her personality… he hadn't known her for too long, she was still rather behind on just about everything. Though, Rebekah was learning quickly thanks to Deliah and Oak. In fact, Rebekah was learning how to hack into computer systems after learning about how a computer and the 'internet' worked, studying for a few weeks with Professor Oak in his lab and used one of his many computers. Rebekah snapped back to the present when Edward began walking towards her, as he looked her over, he noticed her… less than human look and whirled on Tracey.

"What is that!? I thought you said you were bringing a friend, not a pet!" Edward exclaimed, his voice sounding annoyed rather than angry.

Rebekah scowled and in less than a second she was in front of Edward, glaring into his eyes with her ruby ones.

"Don't assume for one moment that anyone owns me," she whispered in his ear. "I'll rip your heart out if you do not treat me with the same respect that you treat everyone else."

Edward glared right back but grudgingly nodded to her. Rebekah immediately cheered up and sat back down on the bed, yawning in boredom. Edward gave her a curious glance and sent Tracey a questioning look; however the Pokemon Watcher merely shrugged and began flipping through a magazine. Edward slumped his shoulders defeated, and sat on a wooden crate, flipping on the TV with the press of a nearby remote control. Rebekah watched from her seat at the bed as Edward flipped through channels; cartoons, a documentary and a sports channel went by before Rebekah got bored again and decided to voice her thoughts.

"So when are we going to do something?" she exclaimed.

"Well I'm off for the rest of the day, so we don't have any work at the docks until tomorrow. The Grand Festival is in three days, so we have plenty of time to do things. Why don't you go out and explore the city?" Edward replied, never looking at her.

Rebekah remembered the incident in Viridian half a year ago and winced. Yet these people had never seen her before and so long as she kept a low profile she'd be alright. Rebekah got up and jogged out the door, shutting it with a bang. Tracey and Edward shared a look before they both grinned knowingly at each other.

"She may not be exactly human, but damn she's fine!" Edward whistled. "You got all the luck man."

"Nah, she wouldn't see me like that. Besides I think of her like my little sister," Tracey replied. "But your right about one thing… she is definitely hot!"

0o0o0o0o0o0

Rebekah wandered down the streets of Vermillion, noticing that the city was coloured in an opaque orangeish red colour. Most of the brick walls were this colour as well as the pavements, making the city bright and cheerful for her to look at. She wandered around, looking in shop windows and dodging around stalls filled with many different items for sale. Rebekah walked past the Pokemon Fan Club building; shaking her head in amusement that pokemon had fans, while they were oblivious to it. There was a house near the water set on its own with a man fishing on a small wooden jetty, catching Magikarp and Goldeen, along with the occasional Shellder. Rebekah ignored it all as she continued to explore, eventually finding her way to the large Gym. The sign outside made Rebekah roll her eyes.

_Vermillion Gym_

_Leader: Lieutenant Surge_

_The Shocking Soldier with Steel Determination_

It was so obvious that it was an Electric- type Gym, now that Rebekah had read the sign. It made her want to giggle that the Gym leader was dumb enough to take away one of his only advantages, not letting the challenger know what type he would be using. As it was, Rebekah was not interested in earning any badges, the thought of using pokemon in battle made Rebekah feel queasy. She had yet to capture any other pokemon since the deaths of her first team, yet she still had a few pokemon in the Storage System, one of them being Jimmy her baby Cyndaquil, which was now no longer a baby pokemon. She also had a new pokemon, found in Sinnoh that was sent to Professor Oak to study, which he gifted to her to look after. She remembered it being called a Garchomp, a Dragon-Ground type pokemon that resembled a dragon and a shark at the same time. When it folds up its body and extends its wing it resembled something close to a jet fighter plane.

"I wonder what else is there to see around here?" Rebekah asked herself.

"Oh there's plenty to see hun. You just need to look for it," a voice floated into her ear from behind.

Rebekah tensed and twisted, her elbow whipping up and stopping at the person's throat. Her movement was gracefully halted just before her reaction would've been fatal to whoever had startled her. Rebekah looked at the person who had spoken and blinked. She wasn't sure if it was a person dressed as a pokemon, or a pokemon dressed as a person. This person had long, violet locks of hair and wore a green ensemble that looked remarkably like a Cacturne, with a matching hat to go with it. The person's stomach was visible through a decorative gap in his shirt, which led Rebekah to believe he was actually human.

"Who are you? You shouldn't sneak up on people!" Rebekah hissed angrily.

"Oh dear me, I'm so sorry dear!" the man exclaimed tearfully. "I didn't mean to frighten you!"

Rebekah wasn't sure if the man was being overdramatic or just plain sarcastic and decided to let him have the benefit of the doubt.

"So who are you?" she repeated.

"Oh how silly of me, my name's Harley. What's your name pumpkin?" Harley replied cheerfully.

"…….My name's Rebekah, and never call me pumpkin again," Rebekah answered, her voice tight with annoyance.

Harley nodded, seemingly full of exuberance. Rebekah internally groaned, feeling as though she was dealing with a little child. While she wasn't looking Harley had gained a mischievous glint in his eyes and grinned wickedly. Rebekah turned back to look at the older teen to see him smiling innocently, which aroused her suspicion. Surely he wasn't unaware of her only slightly human appearance?

"Umm, are you alright? I mean, you haven't started questioning me on my… questionable looks," Rebekah stated.

Harley blinked in confusion and Rebekah tried hard not to slap him.

"My pointy ears and horn?" she tried.

"Oh, no there's nothing wrong with them. Why, is it wrong to dress differently?" Harley replied, his tone belaying his obliviousness.

"…They're real," Rebekah stated, her teeth grinding in her mouth. "I'm only part human."

Harley looked surprised for a second but seemed to casually wave this fact off, as though he saw half-breeds all the time. Rebekah was shocked by his uncaring attitude and found she was beginning to like this young man, though his taste in fashion left much to be desired. Perhaps did he like pokemorphs and was trying to make a statement? Rebekah snorted in amusement at her own thoughts. Harley would likely be lynched for professing his support of pokemorphs. Rebekah found it shameful that so many people were close-minded about things they didn't understand. So pokemorphs did not appear naturally, why was there such a fuss? If it was so wrong for pokemorphs to exist then surely it wouldn't be possible for them to. _'If people saw past my exterior, maybe they'd judge me as a person, not a fucking creature!'_ Rebekah thought angrily. Harley seemed to be speaking so Rebekah tuned back in to the real world.

"I'm sorry what? My mind just wandered away for a second," she said.

"Oh that happens a lot with me too. What I was saying was, are you planning on entering the Grand Festival?" Harley repeated.

"Nope, I'm not really into Pokemon Coordinating. In fact I don't really have interest in training either… If I were to raise pokemon it would be as friends and partners, not for battling or showing off," Rebekah replied thoughtfully.

"So… you like Pokemon Breeding, is that what you mean?" Harley asked.

Rebekah went red at the unsaid insinuation but let it slide. She silently nodded and tuned Harley out again as he clapped his hands together, eyes sparkling and went into a rant of how nice it was for her to be so caring and affectionate. They were still standing in front of the Gym so Rebekah decided to begin exploring again, not bothered as Harley began following her through the streets. In fact, his presence seemed to do her some good as she was getting a lot less hateful stares and rather, curious looks. It seems that people were beginning to believe that she just dressed up like pokemon, rather than _was_ part pokemon. This was enough to make Rebekah start smiling again, despite her usually brooding self. As the pair walked around, Rebekah found that the sun was beginning to get lower and lower in the sky, signalling that night was coming soon. Rebekah had this mad thing about going to sleep before the sun set, as she was unable to keep herself awake at night time. Rebekah remembered she had professed to have gone insane when she first discovered this quirk in herself; however she was saved by Professor Oak's explanation that she was merely a sufferer of Nyctophobia, meaning that she was afraid of darkness. Rebekah had nodded at this explanation, finding it to be rather logical. As such, Rebekah now found herself wandering back to Edward's little warehouse home. It seemed that they made it there in no time and Rebekah turned back to Harley, noticing that he was breathing heavily as though he had run a marathon.

"Are you alright Harley?" she asked, vaguely concerned.

"How did you move so fast? You were walking but I was sprinting just to keep up with you!" Harley exclaimed, his breath coming back to him.

"Really? Guess I should pay more attention to how fast I'm going…" Rebekah muttered. "Anyway this is where I leave you, see you another time Harley."

"Well… before you go I have a favour to ask," Harley said. "I've been asked by Mr Contesta to pick up the Ribbon Cup and get it to the Gym in the next two days. I was wondering if you could pick it up for me? Unfortunately I left my Contest Pass at home in Cinnabar Island… I've had to use an application form every time I need to go in the bank!"

Rebekah looked at him dubiously.

"Really now?" she asked sceptically. "If Mr Contesta needed the Ribbon Cup, he'd have guards go and get it."

"Yes, yes, but that's the problem! He thinks that someone will be trying to steal it and that they'll attack the guards on route to the Gym. But they'd never expect a random Coordinator to be carrying it to the Gym would they?" Harley asked, his voice betraying nothing but desperation. "So he asked me to get it for him. But I can't get in the bank vault without my Pass… do you think you can get inside and pick it up for me?"

Rebekah thought things over. _'Well what he said does make a lot of sense. Ash once told me that the Pokemon League can't start without the Torch being transported there and he himself once carried it to said event. Maybe Pokemon Contests are pretty much the same?'_ she thought to herself.

"Should I tell my friends?" Rebekah asked.

"I wouldn't recommend it, someone might overhear and discover Mr Contesta's plan. It took him quite a while of thinking with Mr Tsukizo to come up with the idea," Harley replied.

"Well… I suppose I could do it. It's a shame you forgot your Pass, I'd hate to have to constantly sign sheets too. Where would I meet you with the Cup?" Rebekah asked.

"There's a block of buildings not far from the Gym. Meet me down one of the alleyways there, it'll arouse less suspicion," Harley answered, Rebekah not noticing the evil glint in his eyes.

Rebekah nodded and went inside the warehouse, going to the hammock that was unoccupied and laying back in it, kicking off her boots. Outside, Harley beckoned to something and two figures came out of the shadows of the warehouse. After quick murmurs they nodded and all three people vanished into the setting sun, down one of the many streets that traced around Vermillion City. Back inside, Rebekah was going over what Harley had said to her… surely he was telling the truth? He had been sincere and kind to her, not like most other people here, he didn't seem to have a reason to lie. Rebekah decided that it wasn't worth getting worked up over and concentrated on going to sleep, desperately needing rest before the darkness came.

_Day 292: Short Fuse 2 (Still going __people!!!)_

Rebekah grinned as she appeared in a store just opposite the bank. It had too easy to slip in undetected at her speed, hack into the security system and open up the small safe with the Ribbon Cup. Said item was now safely stored in a large handbag she had borrowed from Misty, who came to Edward's warehouse just yesterday to see the Grand Festival. Apparently Lt Surge had invited her himself, wishing to talk about Gym strategies and weaknesses as well as watch the show that was happening tomorrow. Now Rebekah was calmly walking out of the shop, a large sun hat on her head to hide her facial features from the public all around her, minding their own business. Walking at what would be considered a normal pace, Rebekah decided to take a shortcut, since the Gym was still quite far away. She ducked into a nearby alley and leapt, straight up into the air, coasting over the edge of the roof of the building next to her and landing on top of it lightly. Rebekah glanced over the edge and scoffed, turning away and leaping to the next roof, heading quickly to the Gym, at a pace that would take the eyes of a pokemon to track properly. After nearly one full minute of jumping, Rebekah touched down in an alleyway, right next to the Gym, just a few buildings along.

"Hello? Harley?" Rebekah called, trying not to be crept out by the darkness of the alleyway, despite it being daytime.

"Over here hun!" came the exuberant call of Harley.

Rebekah turned and was sent sprawling to the floor as something hard and cold collided with her face. Her nose was burst on impact and she blinked away the tears before looking up. Standing above her were two men, swathed in shadows and faces covered by masks. She saw that one was holding a crowbar and the other was holding… an axe!? Rebekah didn't have a chance to scream as the bar came down again, hitting her on top of her head and making her bite her tongue, drowning her shout before it began. The axe also came down, right on her left shoulder, cutting deeply into her skin and causing spurts of blood to erupt from the hacked flesh. As the beating continued Rebekah finally found her voice.

"Harley! Help me!! Please, don't kill me!" she begged with the two strangers. "I'm alive, no different than you!!! I jus- AHHHH!!!"

Rebekah screamed in agony as the axe and bar came down together on her right leg, causing a crack like a gunshot and for something to rip loudly. Rebekah tried to look through swelling eyes and saw something white, sharp and shiny poking out from her knee. She couldn't recognise what it was and her shouts died in her throat again as a boot came down on her mouth, knocking some teeth loose and causing her to bite her tongue again, which began to bleed profusely. Rebekah attempted to move but found that she was in far too much pain to move away. She felt a pair of hands come down on her shoulders and she panicked, her powers flaring wildly. _'Please don't rape me, please don't rape me!' _she begged in her mind, praying for death than such a fate. However the hands merely took the handbag off her shoulder, pulling away before the beating commenced again. Rebekah felt her powers beginning to build up once more, fire enveloping her body as she howled in pain and anger. However just as she started she suddenly stopped, blinking painfully in confusion. She suddenly felt numb, cold and unable to feel her powers. Groaning through the pain she glanced at her stomach and nearly threw up. One of the thugs had shoved a broken bottle in her gut and left it there, sticking out of her gruesomely as blood pooled out of her from the wounds it inflicted. She also noticed that she was completely soaking wet, her skin burning from the cold water as it soaked into her. She saw a small… thing next to the two men, circular, orange, and having lazy, large eyes. There was a bunch of tentacles coming from underneath it, poking her slightly. She felt it drape a tentacle over her right breast and her prayers for a prevented raping renewed themselves in earnest.

"P-p-please……. S-s-stop," Rebekah stuttered, her voice weak and barely above a whisper.

Her vision flashed and her head erupted in agony like fire as the bar came down on her skull, hard. Rebekah was nearly ready to give up when the beating stopped and she managed to crack open one eye, despite the swelling. Standing above her, facing a source of light… was Harley. _'He's come to save me? I knew he couldn't be bad!' _Rebekah internally rejoiced, as well as bled. However her celebrations were cut short when Harley smirked and kicked her, right in the spot between her legs. She felt violated as Harley began to stamp on her reproductive system, his foot coming down again and again on her pussy, making her cry in pain once more. Rebekah lost control of her bladder and felt her underwear become wet, indicating that she had pissed herself in fear. She saw Harley give her once last contemptuous glance, before he walked away, carrying the handbag with the Ribbon Cup in it. The two unknown men walked off, one of them giving a final kick to her head, leaving her alone in the darkness. Rebekah knew that her heart was shattered and that her mind began to shut down, allowing dreamless sleep invade her senses, blackening her world before her eyes.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Rebekah awoke, her eyes feeling sore but able to open, her gaze set upon a pair of forest green eyes. She watched as the eyes drew back, allowing the frowning visage of Edward to appear in her vision. He moved a hand into her sight, a pen of sorts in it. He gave it a click and a light flashed in her left eye, causing her to blink, however he seemed satisfied and did the same with her right eye before standing up, as she was lying down. Rebekah attempted to move and felt a fire erupt in her skin, making her cry out in pain before she stopped. She looked at Edward and realised that he must have found her, as she was no longer lying in an alleyway, but rather a dimly lit room on a bed. She knew it was either Edward or Tracey that had found her as anyone else, save maybe Misty, would have let her die.

"I am how?" Rebekah coughed weakly.

"You've got a broken leg, a cracked pelvis… I don't know how damaged it is. Your eyes are swollen and your… horn has some cracks on it. You have a bad concussion and something split your shoulder open to the bone. As well as them you've got a circular stab mark on your stomach and you're bleeding some kind of orange fluid. As well as that you're fingers are broken and you've got various cuts and bruises all over you," Edward summarized, his voice filled with concern.

"Leyhar…" Rebekah wheezed, coughing up a small amount of blood.

"What? Anyway, right now we're in the Pokemon Center, Nurse Joy's out on an errand and I've broken us in. We're inside one of the medical store cupboards, and your 'bed' is a bunch of cardboard boxes," Edward explained quietly.

Rebekah found that she was able to move as he shoved some kind of pill down her throat. She slowly sat up, noticing that the pain had dulled down to an annoying throb behind her left ear. She was then able to assess all the damage done to her body, noting that she was not bandaged up and was still bleeding freely. She touched her stomach and saw the orange fluid leaking out that Edward had mentioned. She raised her right hand, noting that it was less damaged than the left hand, which was hanging lifelessly at her side. She focused her inner fire and tried to create a fireball in her palm but all she got was a large puff of smoke. Rebekah then realized, the orange fluid that was bleeding out of her, she was losing her powers. Harley must have pierced the orange that secreted the flammable fluid she used as her 'lighter fuel' to create fires. Rebekah grunted and reached out, finding a box of gauze bandages next to her and began to wrap up her stomach, being careful as to save as much of her fuel as possible.

"What about Ley… Har-ley," Rebekah grunted.

"Oh, him? He went right past me as I ran towards you, I heard you while Misty and I were at the Gym, but he didn't try and hurt me," Edward stated.

Rebekah stiffened as she now wrapped a bandage around her arm, her stomach nicely dressed.

"He left you alone? He didn't break you, beat you, try and kill you?" she asked, her voice filled with light surprise.

"Nah, he just wanted to get out of the way," Edward replied.

"Sure, leave the humans. Kill off the freak! Oooooooh!" she growled in anger, as she turned to face him, her eyes aglow with angry fire.

Edward looked at her in surprise as she began to move faster than before. She grabbed a roll of bandages and a splint cast, applying both to her right leg. She finished wrapping up her arm as well, her fingers working the knot one handed. Edward watched her curiously as he unwittingly blocked the way out of the store cupboard, sitting on an upturned bucket near the door. Rebekah used a surgical scalpel to cut out the bits of glass imbedded in her bare stomach, the bleeding starting up again and being stemmed with yet another bandage. She then picked up her discarded cap and set it on her head, facing forwards, the brim going over her small horn, hiding it.

"Alright… let's party," She growled, her eyes smoking dangerously.

She began walking towards Edward, who stood up in her way, trying to console her.

"Hey take it easy Beka, you're okay now," he tried to assure her.

"I'm not human but I am a life form, I have a soul! But he tried to k-k-kill me!" she retorted venomously.

"Wait a minute Beka, what d'you think you're gonna do?" Edward asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Pursue, Capture, Ass Kick," Was his answer.

Edward shook his head disbelievingly. He couldn't understand what was going through Rebekah's injured head but he wasn't going to let her do anything to hurt herself more.

"Come on now these are serious guys! You're not in top form and your-your right leg's broken! Not to mention you got a hard blow to the head!" Edward argued.

"I'm okay-kay, just a few scratches to out work. I'm fine perfectly," Rebekah replied, her voice unfocused and stumbling. Edward nodded sarcastically as she stumbled over her words, trying to make sense of herself.

"Yeah, sure. Listen to yourself, you can't even talk straight!" Edward exclaimed.

His hands were shaking in front of Rebekah's face, begging her to stop. Rebekah raised both her hands, her left hand's fingers cracking as the bones popped angrily from being used. She tightly gripped him by the wrists and lifted him off his feet, his face a mask of shock and pain.

"Edd, a morph's gotta do what a morph's gotta do. Stand aside," she said.

She tossed him over the bucket and walked out the door, leaving Edward scrambling to get back up and after her.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Nurse Joy walked back to the Pokemon Center, extra medicinal supplies in her arms. She glanced at the security alarm and groaned, someone had dismantled it and the side door was lying open. She nearly dropped her supplies when a girl with fiery red and blonde hair jumped out the door, badly injured and jogging off at a brisk pace. Nurse Joy nearly jumped again when a teenage boy dashed out of the door, right after the girl. Sighing, Nurse Joy walked inside and shut the side door with a snap, as Edward continued his pursuit of Rebekah.

"Hey Firetop, cool it!" he yelled.

Rebekah ignored him and continued to jog through the streets, winding and twisting her way through the ignorant civilians plying the pavements. Edward followed her closely, knowing he couldn't stop her, not with her strength and speed, lessened as they were. She swerved down an alley that Edward knew only too well. The same alley that Harley and his two thugs had beaten and frozen Rebekah, leaving her to die in the streets around the uncaring public. Rebekah was standing over the now congealed pool of her own blood that had poured from the many wounds that were still afflicted her body. She seemed to be glaring at a spot on the road, her vision focused on something he couldn't see.

"Heat traces… tire tracks. That's their car!" she exclaimed suddenly.

"What you mean you can track where they went?" Edward shouted in surprise.

"Piece of soup… can of cake," Rebekah responded, still not quite all there. "Get on."

Edward looked at incredulously but complied, allowing Rebekah to carry him on her back as she started jogging down the street, moving at around thirty mph. Rebekah frowned as she concentrated on the tire tacks of Harley's jeep, trying not to confuse them with the many other tracks now joining them as she moved onto a busy street. She rushed down the road, swerving around cars and other vehicles, most of which either blared their horn at her or accelerated. Rebekah glanced up and spotted the black jeep she was following, making out Harley's violet hair through the rear windshield.

"There they are, at 3 o'clock!" she exclaimed to Edward.

"That's them?! Alright, we might actually catch them now!" Edward shouted joyfully.

Inside the vehicle, Harley nearly crashed into another car when he saw Rebekah in the wing mirror.

"I don't believe it…" he moaned. "Let's lose her."

He accelerated and swerved around cars that blocked his path, taking a turn down a random street and heading towards Vermillion City Docks. Rebekah gasped and panted as she slowed down, unable to keep going with Edward hanging onto her. She cursed and watched as Harley took a right turn and disappeared from sight. She looked around for a shortcut, her eyes flying around wildly in her skull, taking in all the information around her at an incredible speed. Finally her eyes rested on a manhole cover on the ground in front of her. She stumbled over to it and lifted it up, getting ready to jump in.

"Oh we are not going in there!" Edward moaned.

"They're heading towards the Docks, we can catch up through these tunnels, which take a direct route to the sea," Rebekah reasoned.

She let herself down as Edward reluctantly followed, trying to ignore the stench that wafted up into his nose. He and Rebekah made quick work of the straight tunnel, ignoring the Rattata and Raticate down there. Rebekah finally stopped under another manhole cover, above their heads where they could hear the brakes of a car activating. With her acute hearing Rebekah could hear very faint voices. _"It's alright we lost her now." "I'm telling you you're underestimating her, she'll find us again!"_ Rebekah grinned at Edward and climbed the ladder, reaching the top and gently lifting up the cover. Edward glanced at the flowing black water next to the walkway he was on and shuddered.

"See them?" he asked hopefully.

"Shhh! Quiet!" Rebekah hissed.

"Quiet… do you know what just floated past me?" he retorted.

Rebekah grinned when she realized that the jeep was right above her head. She braced her legs against the sides of the tunnel and raised the jeep off its wheels slightly; resting on the cover she was holding above her head. She began to shake her arms intensely, which transferred to the jeep, making it seem like an earthquake inside the vehicle. Edward gave her a curiously look and tried to see what she was doing, however he couldn't see past the shaking manhole cover she was holding above her head. Rebekah used her horn to clip the vehicles fuel line, the fuel of which began leaking out. She heard the computerized female tone of the car _"Vehicle is low on fuel…"_

"What are you doing now?" he asked.

"Pumping iron," Rebekah replied cheekily, as the vehicle's passengers above her shouted and were jerked around in their seats. "And you're going no where bastards!"

She looked around her and noticed that from what she could see they were at the junkyard where broken vehicles and cargo went that came from the transport ships. There was a bunker nearby that was probably an underground store room, which had a slanted roof much like a ramp. Past that was the scrap heap where the crushed cars were piled up and melted to recycle the metal. _'What a perfect place to send these guys…'_ Rebekah thought as she turned at the waist to aim the jeep towards the bunker, past the fence.

"Prepare for launch, all systems are go!" she said to herself.

The driver of the jeep above her seemed to finally get an idea and the wheels spun rapidly, trying to move. Rebekah smirked and lowered herself down until the jeep's wheels touched the dusty ground, making the jeep shoot forward, straight off of the manhole cover she then discarded to the side. The jeep seemed out of control at it rushed at the junkyard, workers leaping to the side to avoid being hit by the speeding vehicle. Rebekah grinned from her view point at the sewer entrance and made yet another quip.

"We have lift-off!" she declared, giggling.

The jeep smashed through the fence like it was nothing and swerved to the side slightly, however its two right wheels hit the ramp and caused the vehicle to lift into the air in a barrel roll. Its front left corner caught the ground and caused it to spin over once, before it crashed onto its side. Workers from the junkyard swarmed over to the vehicle as Rebekah and Edward lifted themselves out of the narrow tunnel. Rebekah strutted through the ruined fence as she spotted the two thugs and Harley escaping the ruined jeep that was now where it belonged… in the scrap heap.

"Hey you!" Rebekah shouted across the open ground.

The two bouncers of Harley looked up, staring at her in shock.

"Here's Beka!" Rebekah taunted, her voice gravelly and tough sounding.

The more impulsive of the duo scowled at her, grabbing a crowbar from the ground. His partner grabbed a simple pipe up and they both approached the late teen.

"Alright wanker freak, time for you to get it," the hard one spat.

"Oh yeah? Well get this you tool," she replied, flipping him her middle finger. "Get outta my face you ugly mutha!"

Rebekah grabbed a metal bar from the ground of around equal length and thickness to the thug's crowbar. He swung at her with a simple diagonal smash, however she blocked easily, her hands holding onto either end of the bar she was using. Meanwhile Harley watched while backing away, trying to escape unnoticed by the _monster _he should have finished off himself. He went round to the back of the side-turned jeep, before turning around to come face to face with a smug Edward. Harley jumped in surprise.

"Where you going speedy?" Edward laughed.

Harley attempted to punch the younger man but was easily blocked and pushed against the visible underside of the jeep.

"Watch it prick! Get ready to leave…" Edward warned him before turning to watch Rebekah's fight.

Rebekah was blocking each hit that the angry one was sending at her, the other one seeming too afraid of her to get too close. Rebekah was also taking the opportunity to anger the two, using her vocal cords to change her voice to those of well known TV channels. She spoke, casting out the perfect imitation of Nurse Joy.

"Violence among males, seems to be a expression of sexual frustration, Hehe," she declared.

"Damn you, you bastard help me! Ick-kay er-hay eg-lay!" The angry one shouted at his partner, saying this as he was thrown to the floor by a powerful push from Rebekah.

The scared one blinked and glanced at the metal pipe he was holding.

"Umm… you have small tits!" he yelled at Rebekah, who turned to face him. "And I got another message for you… I'll stab you up the ass!"

"Oh, like I'm really scared you know, for sure. Hoo, hoo!" Rebekah replied giggling, her voice becoming that of something similar to a cartoon characters voice... a weird animal called 'Goofy'.

The scared one fumed and glanced at his would-be weapon, before hurling it at Rebekah, who easily snatched it out of the air. She took both ends and slowly bent the bar into a U-shape, with no visible effort on her part.

"Yes, yes Beka!" Edward cheered.

The scared one looked even more so and backed into the mesh fence behind him, while his partner got up off the ground behind Rebekah. The angry one lifted his crowbar and attempted to bring it down on Rebekah's swollen left shoulder… only for her bandaged left hand to catch it. The angry one gripped the crowbar tighter and attempted to pull it from her grip. Giving up with force he tapped her right shoulder, causing her to look at him, her eyes glowing like red hot coals.

"You rang?" she asked.

She whirled around, dragging the thug with her as he held the crowbar tightly. Rebekah stopped and the force of the action caused the angry guy to let go of the bar and fall to the ground of his back.

"Uck-fay ou-yay astard-bay," Rebekah growled; her face just above his.

She laid a foot on his chest and pushed him into a pile of metal discards, causing the pile to collapse on top of him, pinning him down until someone would let him out. She stood up straight and turned to the scared one who put his arms over his head in a sign of surrender. Rebekah just smirked as she strutted towards him, her hips swaying seductively with each step.

"Well okay cowboy, its round-up time," Rebekah exclaimed.

Edward laughed at Rebekah's antics, not noticing Harley tensing up. Just as Edward's stomach became unguarded, Harley drove his clenched fist into it, causing Edward to collapse against the side of the jeep, coughing. Harley took his chance and ran off, the stolen Grand Festival Cup inside his backpack. Edward coughed, trying to repair his lungs as he attempted to call for Rebekah; however his voice was hoarse, strained and far too quiet for her to hear. He coughed some more, trying to calm down before he suffocated himself. Meanwhile Rebekah stood in front of the scaredy-cat thug.

"Um, excuse me but could you put your arms down please?" Rebekah asked.

"Sure," the wuss squeaked, complying.

"Thank you," Rebekah said, her right hand gripping the edge of the steel mesh.

She pulled and the mesh came right off the fence frame, wrapping around the thug and immobilizing him completely. However before Rebekah had a chance to celebrate she was cut off by Edward's shout.

"Beka... Harley!" he called, coughing.

Rebekah's eyes flashed dangerously as she began to walk.

_Begin the song "I Need A Hero" by Bonnie Tyler._

_Instrumental_

"Grrrrrrrrrrr!"

She quickly exited the junkyard and back into the busy streets on the edge of the Vermillion waterfront. She could see Harley scampering away up ahead and chased after him, her legs beginning to shake as the pain intensified. The pain killers were obviously beginning to wear off. Harley turned the corner of a block with Rebekah hot on his tail, unfortunately she was slowing down to a medium paced jog, one that Harley could evenly match. She growled, her glowing red eyes scaring the civilians in her way, out of her way.

"It's a dead end Harley!" she called. Blood spurted from her injured shoulder as the cut reopened from her exertion, eliciting a groan of pain. "Give it up!"

Harley ignored her and dashed down to the nearby pier, where a man was busy at work, refueling his small speedboat. Harley kicked the man out of the way causing the man to shout "Hey!" before splashing into the water. Harley leapt into the boat and gunned the throttle, causing the rotors to start turning, propelling the boat forward. Rebekah reached the beginning of the pier as he turned back to look at her. Her leg twinged horribly and blood began to stain the bandages she was wearing.

"Stop!" she shouted at the violet haired teen.

"So long honey!" he replied as he began to get further away.

Rebekah frowned and set off, moving as fast as she could down the pier.

"Oh yeah? Watch this!" she exclaimed.

Before she could jump onto the boat from the end of the pier, her right leg gave out on her temporarily, causing her to fall and add splinters to her list of growing injuries.

"Fuck! I can't make that far a jump! Alright Harley, I'll pass you up at the head!" she said to herself, getting up and moving back off the pier to the road, which was connected to the motorway now that she was near the edge of the city.

Meanwhile back at the junkyard Edward was moving to detain the two thugs, nursing his winded stomach. He approached the one immobilized by the mesh and pointed at him threateningly.

"Hey tough guy…" he began.

Police sirens came into hearing range, cutting him off, and he spotted Tracey, leaning out the window of one of the approaching patrol cars. Now ignoring the unnamed thug Edward began running towards the car, his mind running faster and faster as he frantically tried to stop the car.

"Tracey! Tracey!" he shouted as he stopped the car and got to the window.

"Where's Rebekah!? She's bleeding and soaking wet, if we don't warm her up or give her a blood donation, she'll run out of heat or bleed out and she'll die!" Tracey clamored.

0o0o0o0o0o0

_Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?_

_Where's the streetwise Hercules, to fight the rising odds?_

Rebekah frowned as she held onto the side of a pickup truck moving onto the motorway, a stolen skateboard under her feet. She looked at the waterfront and saw the speedboat Harley had commandeered, following the water's edge. Obviously he was headed to the airport just outside of Vermillion on the way to Celadon City.

_Isn't there a white knight, upon a fiery steed?_

_Late at night I toss and I turn and I dream of what I need…_

Rebekah let go of the truck she was clamped onto and skateboarded down onto the dockside, where the larger ships where supposed to dock. She had overtaken Harley and could see him approaching on the boat. Looking to the side she saw the airport in the distance, but better yet, she saw a crane closer by, the magnet hanging above the water. She screwed her eyes up in pain as she began to make her way towards the crane as fast as her feet, now that she had abandoned the skateboard, could carry her.

_I need a hero!_

_I'm holding on for a hero till the end of the night!_

_He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast and he's gotta be fresh from the fight._

Rebekah's feet pounded on the cement as blood poured from her right leg, the muscles contracting painfully as she began limping.

"Ooh," she moaned as blood poured from her broken leg. Her shoulder throbbed painfully as well, causing her to slow down further. "Aack!"

She was still going as fast as a bicycle at a medium speed; however she was slowing down by the minute. Her breath was misting in front of her face as she continued to lose heat, her fire source having run dry and being unable to keep her warm. She left a trail of blood behind her as she ran, hoping against all odds that she reached the crane before Harley passed it. She clutched her stomach with her right hand as her bandages began to unravel, soaking with blood and trailing behind her feet.

_I need a hero!_

_I'm holding on for a hero to the morning light!_

_He's gotta be sure and he's gotta be smooth and he's gotta be larger than life!_

_Larger than life…_

Rebekah glanced behind her at Harley who was so close she could make out his hair color from where she was, meaning he was too close and she needed more time to set up her trap. She neared the crane and noticed many construction materials lying around as she began to pass them. She snatched up and coiled length of chain as she passed it and slung it onto her uninjured shoulder.

"No Harley! NO!" she yelled, pushing herself even harder.

She sped up slightly just as the crane was coming closer. On the boat Harley noticed her and chuckled to himself.

"Forget it, you can't swim!" he taunted. "He, he, he."

Rebekah groaned as her leg wobbled, threatening to give out on her. However she had reached a pile of wood next to a cherry picker, next to the magnet crane and decided she would use it to her advantage. She just prayed against all hope that the crane was active. If it wasn't then Harley was sure to get away, leaving her to die with failure. She reached down and flipped up a flat wooden board, creating a small ramp for her to use, however doing so caused another spurt of blood that now left her face white and her breath short. She knew if she didn't end this soon she would bleed out and be unable to continue. She hobbled up the makeshift ramp and onto the cherry picker platform.

_I need a hero!!_

_I'm holding on to a hero till the morning light!_

With a slam of the switch the machine shuddered to life under her, starting up and causing her to be lifted up into the air.

_He's gotta be sure and he's gotta be smooth and he's gotta be larger than life!_

"Higher!! Faster!!" Rebekah screamed, now down on one knee as her legs threatened to give way. "Come on!"

_I need a hero!_

_I'm holding on for a hero till the end of the night!_

"Harley you bastard! You won't get away, I'm really pissed off!" Rebekah yelled, shaking her right fist at him.

_Instrumental_

Harley looked at Rebekah from his stolen craft, now almost past Rebekah and closing in all the time.

"Ciao! Ha ha!" he shouted gleefully.

Rebekah unslung her chain and looked at the powerful magnet hanging above and ahead of her. It looked just close enough for her plan to work. With a heave, she got to both feet and took a deep breath. With a shout of anger she jumped forward, sailing into the air. She threw her chain up at the peak of her jump, and heard the audible clang as it magnetized to the large metal disc above her. She held onto the other end as gravity took control and brought her swinging down towards the boat with near perfect timing.

"Harley!!!!" she roared.

He looked up to come face to face with angry red eyes.

"No!"

He screamed as she latched her left hand onto his top and plucked him right out of the boat. Said craft keeping motoring away, preventing Harley from escaping if he wanted to now. Rebekah held tightly onto the chain wrapped around her wrist and also onto the scruff of Harley's green Cacturne style shirt. He flailed in her grip but it was futile now that she had a hold on him. As they entered the end of her swing, Rebekah took the chance to make her victory known to the man, whom she had thought was a friend,

"I'm alive Harley! And you're busted!"

Harley groaned and struggled, whimpering as they swung back towards the dockside, positioning above a large pile of wooden boxes. At that exact moment, Rebekah's strength ran out and she let go of the chain, both her and Harley falling onto the pile with a crash of splintering wood. Rebekah whimpered as her leg was now bent out of shape once more from her landing, the large chunk of flesh that was missing now started bleeding slower as she ran out of blood to lose. More importantly Rebekah felt cold… colder than she had in her entire life.

"What are you?" Harley gasped as he sat up wearily. "Punishment from God?"

Rebekah did nothing to reply but cough up blood, groaning in agony as the full pain she was in came to her senses. She felt so cold, but also like her limbs were on fire, burning like raging lava. It was an terrifying experience for her as she had only really burned herself once, and that was healed quickly. Now however she looked mournfully at her stomach as a small trail of bubbling orange fluid trickled out and the last of her fire essence was drained from her pierced stomach. In the distance Rebekah could hear sirens but she couldn't move and her eyes were feeling very heavy.

"Rebekah! Oh my God, Rebekah!" Tracey panicked as he rushed to her side.

"Shit!" Edward cursed as he knelt on her other side, leaning over her.

The police officers on scene grabbed up Harley and the Grand Festival Cup, taking both into custody in one of the patrol cars. In the distance was an ambulance approaching with both a Nurse Joy and a medic on hand for treating injuries. Tracey shoved the officers and Harley out of the way as he got to Rebekah's side. He could almost feel the coldness within her as he stared at her mutilated form. Her right leg was bleeding slightly, not as much as it should have been given the extent of its injuries, which only told him just how much blood she had lost. Her left arm was lifeless and dangling at an odd angle, as both he and Edward moved Rebekah from the boxes to the ground gently.

"Tracey…" Rebekah breathed.

"Rebekah… why are you so cold? You should be able to create your own heat! Where's your essence?" he asked.

"What?" Edward asked, confused.

"Her fire essence, the thing that makes her able to produce flames!" Tracey yelled, unable to cope with the stress.

"It's gone, she was stabbed in the stomach, the organ took a direct hit and she bled it out… fuck, I knew she wasn't up to this!" Edward cursed.

Edward looked away, ashamed as Tracey held his shaking hands up to his friend. Her eyes were puffy and swollen, her horn was cracked, nearly splintered. Her clothes were ripped to shreds, only barely being decent. Normally tracey would be red with embarrassment had Rebekah not been dying in this state.

"Rebekah…" he whispered, tears gathering in his eyes as he gently stroked her cheek.

Nearby the ambulance in the distance had pulled up and a medic ran from the back over to the scene. A Nurse Joy rushed out to join them as Tracey eyed them both.

"We need a fire pokemon and a blood pack! Type-B!" he shouted.

A paramedic climbed from the front, a refrigerated blood pack in hand of the type Tracey had described. Nurse Joy set about her wounds, spraying them with a Hyper Potion, causing them to hiss and steam, slowly sealing up. Her legs was a different story as the bone needed to be set straight, Rebekah's splint having broken from too much strenuous use. Edward looked at a nearby Officer jenny and grabbed a pokeball from her belt. He tried to summon the pokemon inside but was tackled by the Officer Jenny he had taken it from.

"Ok, her wounds are healed up and the blood pack's empty," the medic stated.

"She's still too cold!" Tracey exclaimed.

"Edward what are you doing!" Misty exclaimed, noticing that he was fighting with an Officer.

Rebekah turned her head slowly to look her friend in the eye and gave Tracey a sad, tired look.

"Goodbye… Tra-cey…" She whispered, before becoming still.

Tracey's eyes went wide.

"Noooo!!!" he exclaimed, shaking Rebekah slightly. He turned on the Officer Jenny, "Let us use that Growlithe for fuck sake!"

Stunned at Tracey's language at the intensity of which he said it, the Officer let them have her pokeball and Tracey called out the Growlithe. The pokemon took a look at Rebekah before whimpering slightly, sniffing her still form. Tracey calmed himself before he barked an order. The people around him stepped back and gave him space, wondering what in the world he could be thinking.

"Growlithe use Flamethrower!"

The Growlithe barked and released gouts of flame from its mouth upon Rebekah. Nothing happened but Tracey was determined to keep his friend alive. He ordered the same attack once more and the Growlithe complied, yet Rebekah showed no sign of response or recovery. Edward shook his head sadly while Misty began to cry tears for the poor girl on the ground. Tracey began to get frustrated and pounded his fist into the ground in anger, staring at Rebekah while tears flowed thickly from his eyes.

"Come On!!!!! Growlithe use Overheat!" Tracey exclaimed.

A burst of white-hot flame erupted from the hound's mouth and washed over the fiery pokemorph, singing her flame-resistant clothes and causing smoke to rise from her body. Tracey closed his eyes and cried softly, not noticing one of Rebekah's eyes twitch. Her eyes opened slowly and focused in the bright light of the sun. Her skin began to retake its normal pale hue as blood began pumping around her veins once more. Her heart, which had stopped beating, began to work in overdrive as her body's systems began to reboot. Inside of her, an unknown organ filled with a volatile, combustible orange fluid began burning once more. Tracey opened his eyes in shock as he heard a sharp intake of breath.

"Rebekah!" he cried. "Are you alright? Say something!"

"……perfectly… ok," she breathed.

"Oh….. Thank you god," Tracey thanked the lord silently.

He hugged her head close to his chest as Misty and Edward smiled happily, tears dropping from both their eyes. Slowly Tracey helped Rebekah onto her feet until they were both standing up straight, Rebekah still having a few inches over Tracey. They four friends gathered round each other, with congratulations and shouts of joy, walking off and into the back of the waiting ambulance, to get Rebekah's leg seen to. Just before the doors closed, Rebekah looked out at the sky and saw a figure standing inside the control box of the magnetic crane, smiling at her. Rebekah couldn't see properly from the glare of the sun, but she could just tell that the person was smiling.

"Thank you indeed," she whispered.

* * *

**Hoo-kay! Now we know that Gary is the one finding some of the teammates with his contacts around the place, most of them being Pokemon Researchers like himself. That means, Oak, Elm, Birch and Rowan are on the lookout for our young friends. Anyway I'm not yet decided on the next chapter so please vote for your next favorite one! Also I'd like to thank Westman and Totodile for their reviews and brining it to my attention that I'm taking too long. My Summer Holidays end in two days and I've still got some Maths to finish before I go back. (**

**Laters!!! 3**


	30. Chapter 30: Ash: Master of Aura

**Dark Angel**

**Hi-dee-ho!**** Unfortunately I cannot pin the lateness of this update on losing my face when an alligator bit off, rather I was just busy… but that should clear up soon anyways. By a single non-demand we have a new character for today, he is strong, he is smart, he has a girlfriend, and he can use the formidable powers of leadership and heart… his name: Ash Ketchum! So look out people because Ash is heading your way with his side of the story. I'd like to say thanks to Ry and Vulbel and Ontura for their cheer, as it helped inspire me to write this faster. I've also been working on some future plot scenes and have decided to give you a small sneak peek at what you can expect to see in the future chapters. Finally I feel I must point out the following:**

**WARNING! This chapter has moved into the explicit-ness expected of an M-rated fanfiction so that means, possibly rude language, sexual references and/or situations! You have been warned… unless you like that sort of thing.**

**Now here's the sneak peek!**

* * *

_**Angel glanced sideways at Sabre as she focused on the energy being gathered in her hands. **_

"_**Hey Sabre, just remember you still owe me that ice cream," she whispered, her breathing erratic.**_

"_**You'll get it when I get my ketchup," Sabre replied, her arms shaking with exhaustion.**_

_**With **__**the Plates destroyed and the research data disc safely away in Sabre's pouch, all they had to do now was destroy the power generator to set Mizu free from the Crystal Force shield that now held her prisoner. Mizu was still animalistic and slashing at the wall of energy with her titanium claws to no effect, which was steadily making her angrier and as a result, more primal. Rebekah fell to one knee from fatigue but kept her hands steadfast where they were, a glowing and crackling ball of fire held between them. Angel's hands were held on Rebekah's right, near her hands and Angel was holding what appeared to be a snowstorm the size of a pokeball between her palms. Sabre was holding her own hands on Angel's right and her hand fizzed and crackled with powerful electricity. Each pair of hands glowed in a colour corresponding to the type of energy each girl was holding. There was glistening blue for Angel, fiery red for Rebekah and static yellow for Sabre. Each glow pulsed once in unison and the three balls of energy left the girls' hands, floating forwards and towards each other. At the point where they met their energies coalesced into a great sphere of shimmering white. Angel felt the raw power trying to push her back but she kept her hands focused on the sphere of power that she, Sabre and Rebekah were controlling. Together their voices rang out over the din of the lightning, the roar of machinery and Mizu's loud screams.**_

"_**T.R.I Attack!!!"**_

* * *

**So there we go, a nice little scene I created to keep the suspense up. Anyways, Ash I'll let you take the stage.**

**Ash: Yeah, now I can get my… wait, why's it getting darker? Damn you Kgmck177, the intro's over!**

**Chapter 30: Ash – Master of Aura**

_Day 1: Crash_

Ash felt as though his skin was on fire as the thunderbolt smacked into his chest. He saw the world around him breaking apart as his vision slowly faded into nothingness. As he, he thought he was dying, he looked back at May and gave her a small smile both everything went black. Ash couldn't see but all around him he felt rushing air, as if he was moving through a pitch-dark tunnel at incredible speeds. The air around him felt tight and he found it hard to breathe, unable to see, smell, touch or taste anything but hearing the howling winds tearing at his flesh. Ash would have screamed had he a voice in the darkness of the void he found himself inside. _'Is this the afterlife? If it is then I'm going to kick God's ass for freaking me out so much!' _he thought angrily. As if answering his thoughts, there was a light ahead of him, the size of the tip if a pin, slowly growing in his vision. Ash did not know how long this went on for, seconds turned to hours and days seemed to be minutes in this strange realm of nothing. Finally the light enveloped Ash and all around was incredibly bright, forcing ash to shut his eyes. _'I have eyes! Am I not dead?'_ he thought quickly. Ash opened his eyes again and noticed that he seemed to be back on Earth, plus he could see what was around him. Ahead, a mountainside filled the horizon with a forest sweeping towards him. The sun was just setting on the skyline, slinking behind the mountain slowly but surely, as day turned to night. Ash felt wind rushing around him and looked down. Seeing nothing under his feet Ash did the only logical thing he could think of… he screamed.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

Ash watched as a tower spire came dangerously close to him and noticed that he was above a large castle. It was surrounded by a magnificent lake with a large stone bridge leading back to the forest that blanketed the area around the lake. Ash missed the spire and smacked into the slanted roof hard, forcing the breath out of his lungs and causing the fragile tiles to crack ominously. Ash groaned and tried to get to his hands and knees, feeling weak from the impact. His chest seared with pain and Ash wondered if he broke a rib from the crash.

"Next time, I'll take a plane rather than the Freefall Express…" he muttered sourly.

As Ash's senses came back to him he heard a loud boom like thunder and looked up slowly, his breathing haggard. Above him was a slowly dissipating was a large storm cloud that seemed to be blowing away like smoke in a breeze, disappearing on the winds. Ash frowned in thought at the implications of falling out of a thunder cloud and onto a familiar looking building. _'Hmmm… If I remember the Legend of Thunder right then the pokemon Raikou could turn into a thunder cloud on command and travel on the winds. Maybe that's what that thunderbolt did to me, then that means I've been separated from everyone else! The electrical shock will also have short-circuited any electronic devices on my… person… uh-oh.'_ Ash paled slightly and grabbed at his pokebelt and sighed with relief at the absence of his pokeballs. _'Professor Oak you are a genius. That old code you wrote in the transportation software made my pokeballs transport to your lab when a large electrical surge was detected running through my body.'_

Ash felt his strength return as he lay there on his front, the roof not being steep enough for him to slide off. Ash slowly felt forwards with his hands and pushed off the tiles slowly, getting onto his knees and then to his feet, trying not to overbalance on the slope of the roof of the magnificent palace-type castle. Ash thought back and realized where he was… just not 7 months ago he was here for the Aura Festival! Ash turned around and sure enough, behind him he could see the great rock structure known as the Tree of Beginning. So he was still in Hoenn… Ash sighed again as he knew he was still close to where he had been before. It wouldn't have been good for him to appear in a desolate place like the Orre region, all alone with no company… it would have driven him insane. Still Ash knew he had to get down, so with great care, he began to make his way to one of the windows jutting out of the roof. He managed to make it to the levelled out roof just above the window without incident and leaned over the edge of the roof to look in. His eyes widened and his face grew imperceptibly red as he looked through the clear glass into the room beyond. It was Lady Eileen! Plus she wasn't wearing anything! Ash swallowed as he watched the woman lying on a large, four-poster bed, with a large black… dildo, in her hand. Ash nearly fainted as she pushed the toy quickly into her hairless, flawless, already wet pussy; cum dripping out steadily as she began to thrust the toy into herself again and again. Her large pale breasts bounced with each thrust as she writhed on the bed, her back arched up and her hips grinded down on the plastic item in her hand, her long blond hair splayed out beneath her. Her right hand worked the dildo as her left hand trailed up her flat stomach to caress one of her breasts, squeezing tightly as her mouth opened in what Ash assumed was a moan, however he could not hear what went on inside said room. Ash was so shocked that he could've fallen off the roof and not noticed until he had died, so erotic was the scene before him. Ash tore his eyes away from the view when Lady Eileen turned the dial at the end of the dildo to what Ash believed would make it 'vibrate'. Trying desperately to ignore the now audible screams of ecstasy Ash tried to find another way down, rather than through the Queen's private bedroom. Ash felt somewhat proud of his self-control however as he managed to quell the erection he was getting. Focussing on getting down he found that there was a frameless window on the spire of the tower that was just within reach, across the roof to his right. Ash trotted over to it and slowly clambered inside, finding himself in an empty stairwell.

"God I hope this doesn't lead to Lady Eileen's bathroom," Ash whispered in frustration.

He quickly descended the stairs, dust clogging the air and making him wheeze slightly as the particles invaded his lungs. His steps echoed hollowly through the tower and Ash could've sworn he heard a gasp and a flurry of movement from below him. With growing dread Ash found a stone doorway into a brightly lit area lined with marble floor tiles. He took a quick look around and groaned at his misfortune. _'I just had to say something…' _Ash thought miserably. Who else could be standing before him? Wielding her still vibrating dildo like a club was the nude Lady Eileen, drenched with sweat and breathing heavily. Ash tried not to look at her reddened, stiff nipples or her pussy, still dripping fluids onto the floor. Instead he looked into her blue eyes and sweatdropped as she seemed to recognize him.

"Sir Ash! Oh, forgive me for startling you!" Lady Eileen apologized, lowering the sex toy and turning it off, her face red. "To what do I owe the… unexpected, pleasure?"

"I'm lost…" Ash said blankly.

"Surely you know that you are in my castle Sir Ash?" Eileen asked. "In my personal bathroom no less…"

"Sorry that was an accident… please put some clothes on!" Ash exclaimed loudly, unable to take the sight of Lady Eileen standing naked in front of him in a casual manner.

Lady Eileen went red slightly and grabbed a terrycloth bathrobe from a nearby rack and slipped into it, relieving Ash of some discomfort. Remembering how he got here Ash decided to make use of the situation, seeing what resources and assets he could use. _'I wonder if I can learn to use that "Aura" power here… Lucario could throw Aura around like it was a plaything and I only just managed to control it with Sir Aaron's gloves,' _Ash thought suddenly.

"Lady Eileen. Is it possible for me to learn the ways of the Guardian here?" Ash asked, referring to the title 'Guardian of Aura'.

Lady Eileen seemed taken aback.

"Such teachings have not been seen in over a thousand years. Why would you wish to learn these techniques?" she asked. "Surely you could have your pokemon fight for you in your stead."

Ash remembered his pokeballs and his current predicament with Pikachu, who had been stolen from him not an hour ago. Ash remembered the feeling of helplessness as he was forced to watch from the sidelines as Jake, Mizu and Rebekah fought with that Electra girl. He felt a certain sense of envy with his pokemorphs friends, wishing he could be as powerful as they were, fighting against people like Team Rocket for the good of the world. He levelled a solid stare at Lady Eileen and shook his head.

"No, I will not use my friends in such a manner, I must learn to fight on my own… like my ancestor Sir Aaron," Ash declared proudly.

Lady Eileen smiled, remembering showing Ash the family tree of Sir Aaron, that Sir Aaron had a daughter who lived at the palace while he assumed his role as the Guardian. His Daughter's name was Delila, and she was much like Ash: stubborn, hyper-active, and having an insatiable appetite. After her 12th birthday, she was allowed to go out on a journey like her father's and had a family of her own once she settled down. Ash's mother, Deliah, was not in the official records but his grandparents were near the bottom, so Ash still had no idea who his father was but he was glad that he knew more about his family history, relishing in the fact that most of his family were pokemon trainers like him. Ash tuned back into the conversation as Lady Eileen began to speak again.

"I see… your reasons are honourable and as such, as you remain our Guardian of Aura for this year, you shall be able to access the Library. It is the repository of knowledge created by the generations of Guardians before you. You should find all that you need there," she declared, smiling warmly.

"Alright! Let's get started!" Ash exclaimed.

0o0o0o0o0o0

"This is harder than I thought," Ash groaned.

He had been to the Library and found several books and even scrolls of information on Aura. Ash noticed that Aura and Chakra seemed to be the same things, yet different from each other. Chakra was the formation of spiritual and physical energy, however Aura was purely spiritual. This made it easier for Ash to grasp as a concept yet his exercise on Aura Formation was not going so well. The scroll he had laid out in front of him had directions for an Aura exercise to build control and power. Ash was focusing his Aura between his two hands, the easiest place to gather that particular energy. His hands were in a position as if he was holding an invisible ball, shaking slightly as Ash focused his being on gathering his spiritual energies into the air between them. Ash noticed a small, flickering ball of blue light suddenly appear in between his palms and realized with a rush of excitement that it was working… Ash had been sitting under this tree in the grounds of the palace for almost three hours, and now he was making progress! As he concentrated, he didn't notice the shadow creeping up on him from behind the great oak tree he was sitting against.

"Hiya mister!"

Ash jumped at the sudden noise and looked down. Clutched to his left leg was a small girl of around four, maybe five, years old. She wore a small red dress with a matching red cloak that billowed out lightly behind her in the soft afternoon winds, as well as black stockings and small black shoes with a single buckle. Under a black and red travelling hat were long locks of shiny black hair that gleamed in the sunlight. She looked like a little cartoon witch, cute and magical in her own special way. She was smiling sweetly at him and staring in awe at the sparkling light between his hands. She blinked and reached towards it, her hand seemingly drawn into it.

"No, don't touch th-!" Ash began.

Her index finger connected with his Aura and there was a noise like a great discharge of energy as well as a large flash of light. Ash heard a high pitched shriek and struck out with his arms as he was currently unable to see, trying to find the little girl with his touch. His hand felt something soft and silky and he realized that it must be the little girl's hair. The light died down and his eyes grew accustomed to the darker light around him again and he saw the girl on her back, lying on the ground in front of him. Her eyes were wide open in a glassy stare and her mouth was an 'O' of surprise. Ash moaned and dropped to his knees next to her, grabbing her by the shoulders. Her skin was cold to the touch…

"Jesus Christ! Where's that skill!" Ash cried as he searched the scroll.

He found the necessary part and read the paragraph entitled 'Clarity of Sight'. It was committed to the explanation that Aura could be seen through the eyes of an Aura Sensitive, like Ash, and used like a telescope to see anything that had an Aura Pattern from distance of up to a kilometre. Ash remembered Lucario referring to this sight, as well as using it to lead them to the tree of beginning. He closed his eyes and felt for his Aura, finding it in his stomach area. He felt the power of it, flickering and wild, and pulled it to his eyes, causing them to tingle almost uncomfortably. He could see straight through his eyelids and everything appeared in various shades of blue. It was like he was wearing blue-tinted glasses that glowed with their own inner light. His eyes were drawn to where the little girl lay and he nearly fell over. Where she should have been was only a child shaped void of black. It was as if all her Aura had been sucked out of her… Ash began to sweat at the implications of what had happened. If her Aura was completely gone then her spirit would be unable to maintain its hold on her body and it would let go, causing her body to become an empty shell. She would be worse than dead…

Ash felt tears enter his eyes and stood up, picking up the girl in his arms. She was incredibly light in his hold and he felt very uncomfortable as he carried her slowly back to the castle. This girl's parents would be devastated. Ash nearly gave up there, contemplating on hiding the body, but shook the thoughts off. He needed to be a man and take it like one or he would be no better than Team Rocket. Ash failed to notice his Aura grow stronger and glow brighter than before as he hadn't stopped the flow of Aura to his eyes yet. He simply continued to walk steadily onwards, his eyes dripping with silent tears. As he approached the steps up to the palace living quarters the front door opened and Lady Eileen, as well as her faithful maid (what the hell's her name? I'll go for Anna right now, k?). They rushed to him and grouped up to his face, a long stream of shouts and questions flying through the air.

"Enough!" Ash shouted angrily over the noise. "What happened to her? She touched my Aura while I was gathering it in my hands and there was an explosion of sorts."

Anna looked shocked and stumbled with the first few words before she managed to make a complete sentence.

"Goodness gracious! Your Aura must have pulled hers right out of her body and added it to your's. She'll be as blank as a slate now…" she explained, tears forming in her eyes. "My poor grandchild…"

Ash suddenly felt his chest tighten as he gazed down on the little girl's soft features. He hadn't realized that Anna had family living in the palace grounds. He stared ashamedly at the ground and felt the urge to run away from this pace and never return. _'Some Guardian of Aura I turned out to be…'_ he thought mutinously. Anna wiped at her tears with a small handkerchief and blew her nose gently, as a dignified person would, before turning to Ash once more.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through this my dear boy. You're too young to have to deal with these things," she said sadly.

"You don't seem really sad… are you alright?" Ash asked her.

"My granddaughter's body may not be inhabited anymore… but her spirit lives on inside you. I can see it in your eyes," Anna declared, a small smile gracing her lips.

Ash felt very ashamed of himself yet at the same time he felt slightly relieved that not all was lost.

"In that case Lady Eileen, Anna. I'll get back to my training and work triple hard to protect those that I care for. I'll do it for your family too Anna, I'll make you proud!" he exclaimed brightly.

"That's the spirit my boy!" Eileen and Anna replied in unison.

0o0o0o0o0o0

_Day __163: Mark of a Guardian…_

Ash grinned from under his traveller's hat at the dubious individual before him. Rumours through the town reported that a young new merchant had moved through, selling false items for steep prices. Ash had used his small Intel network of the occasional wild pokemon to track down the man. Finally he had found him and cornered him in an open street, a crowd of people gathering around to see what the commotion was. Ash wore a black traveller's hat with a silver rim as well as a long-sleeved robe, with matching undergarments. He looked like a sage or wizard in the outfit but Ash thought it would be good to keep his movement unrestricted by tight or inflexible clothing such as jeans or shirts. The seedy merchant before him was eyeing him suspiciously as well as trying to hide a blank TM disk away in his merchant coat.

"So Mr Richards… I have reason to believe that you have been selling fake items around town and I'm here to bring you in," Ash declared loudly.

The crowd immediately began whispering at the accusation Ash had placed upon the now sweating Mr Richards. The man glared at Ash through his thick brown hair and decided to try and feign innocence until he could escape quietly.

"Where's your proof kid?" he asked defiantly.

"She's right behind me…"

Ash sidestepped and a little girl around ten years old came into view. She wore a long blue dress that reached her knees and her shiny brunette hair was sleek and reached her middle back. She had large, blue eyes that seemed to pierce into your soul and she frowned when she saw Mr Richards.

"That's the meany that wouldn't let my Pachirisu learn Discharge!" she said, pouting.

"Why's that?" Ash asked, smirking slightly.

"His TM doesn't work," the little girl answered. "Pachirisu was sad, but daddy got us a cheaper Thunderbolt TM."

The entirety of the crowd turned and glared right at Mr Richards, who began sweating bullets. He turned to look around and saw he was completely surrounded, with Ash right in front of him, baring the way forward. The con artist moved his right hand slowly into his right pocket while talking loudly, hoping to distract everyone around him. Fortunately for him it seemed to work as his hand gripped the handle of a hidden knife in his pocket.

"So a little girl thinks I ripped her off, big deal. How do we know she's not lying?" he asked.

Ash pulled a round disk from his pocket, yellow in colour and held it up.

"This is your supposed TM. Right?" Ash asked, his eyes trained on Richards' face.

"Yeah… what about it?" Richards replied.

Ash let go of the 'TM' and it fell to the ground, shattering upon contact.

"Real TMs are shatter-proof. You owe little Ellie here a refund," Ash explained.

"Oh really?" Richards asked, readying his hand. "And what are you going to do about… it!"

With a whipping motion he drew his blade and swept it forwards, aiming for Ash's nose. Ash leaned back from the blow, closing his eyes as he did so. He now stood face to face with an armed man, totally relaxed in posture, his eyes shut. Richards growled quietly and lunged again. Ash ducked under this attack and lightly punched Richards in the gut, knocking the wind out of the less than fit man. Richards wheezed and violently flailed his weapon in front of him, hoping to score a mark on his target. Ash, never opening his eyes, began what seemed like a dance as he slipped and stepped out of the reach of each slash. He leaned his head to the left as a particularly hard thrust went past his ear. He raised his right hand and firmly gripped Richards' hand, causing the man to let go of the knife.

"Enough…" Ash said quietly. "You're coming with me."

"F-Fine…" Mr Richards agreed, whimpering under Ash's strong grip.

The swindler reached into a hidden pocket in his cloak and pulled out a small wad of cash, which he handed to the little girl, Ellie. Said girl scampered off happily, giggling the whole way. Ash, meanwhile, smiled as he brought yet another problem to the light and go it resolved. So far Ash had made 5 'arrests', 3 hi-speed chases on Pidgeot, which had been retrieved, along with most of his original team aside from Pikachu, from Professor Oak via transporter, and Ash had also been challenged to, and won, a duel against another man. However Ash still had one target to reach… to become a fully-fledged Guardian of Aura, Ash had to perform an incredible feat of skill and passion, like the single handed protection of an entire village. Ash didn't know about protecting a village, but he would try his hardest to achieve the rank and become the first Guardian in over 1000 years. Ash noticed that during his thoughts he had managed to steer Mr Richards to the small police station in town. He went straight through the front doors and to the desk, where a bored looking man sat.

"Welcome to the Aurora Village Police Station. Please state your business here…" he droned.

"Ash Ketchum with a con artist charged with selling faux TMs without refund," Ash replied as Mr Richards glanced around nervously.

"Another one Ash? Geez, keep this up and you'll be the one running this place," the man laughed back, cheering up.

Ash grinned and handed Richards over to a police officer while he signed the forms to explain the warrant and event of Richards' arrest. Once done he waved to the receptionist and left, walking back to the Aura Palace. Along the way, Ash looked at his spy network he had growing. When the word 'growing' was used, it was meant literally. Shiny crystals grew out of the ground and cliffs all around at strange angles and intervals. The formation of these crystals was what gave this region of Hoenn its fame, as they could be made into beautiful jewellery or, in the case of Sir Aaron, into powerful tools for Aura Guardians like his staff. Ash remembered that these crystals were a by-product of the Tree of Beginning's spreading of its 'veins'. Each crystal formation was connected to the Tree and then each one connected to all the other crystals that grew. Ash could see into the crystals network using his Aura like looking into a TV and seeing another location. This was his spy network, which he used to locate trouble and dispatch himself to correct. Up ahead lay the Palace where Ash would once again begin reading the books and scrolls he needed to fully understand Aura and all the skills it could grant to the wielder.

"Things are getting a bit routine… I need to try and find my friends as well… that girl with the Pachirisu, Ellie. She got that pokemon from a region called Sinnoh, known as the most eccentric of all regions because of its unusual customs and culture. That's probably a good place to start," Ash said to himself as he walked. "But when should I go? I still have much to study."

"You don't need to study anymore."

Ash gave a start at the unexpected voice nearby. He realised with embarrassment that he had wandered up to the gardens when Queen Eileen would be tending the flowers, which annoyed Anna that she couldn't do it herself. Eileen was dressed in her customary pink gown, long thin sleeves with a long, thin skirt and top to match. It showed off her slim physique while still being very modest. However she wasn't wearing her tiara at the moment, or her necklace. Ash walked over slowly, examining the flowers.

"Why shouldn't I study, Milady?" he asked.

"Oh you! You don't need to call me 'Milady', just Eileen. Or 'Mistress' if you are a person who is in a physical relationship with me," Eileen teased, winking. "Anyway I believe you are ready to go out and meet your friends. There's only so much you can study and it is best that you experience the knowledge that the Guardians have obtained for yourself. Plus you wish to become a Guardian? You already are one."

Ash blinked, twice in fact. Once for the relationship comment and again for the Guardianship comment.

"I'm a fully-fledged Guardian of the Aura? But I haven't done anything spectacular or particularly impressive to warrant it," he argued.

"You are the first person in a thousand years to have learned the ways of Aura manipulation, at a very early age as a matter of fact. Why, Sir Aaron was eighteen when he began his training. It is enough that you have the ability to carry on the tradition, where many before you have failed. You warrant it," Eileen explained, smiling warmly. "I've received word from Professor Oak that Gary has started to search out your companions as well. If you wish to catch up to him, I suggest you start now."

Ash swallowed and nodded determinedly. He would outdo Gary in finding their friends and comrades first or at least find most of them. Ash pulled off his cloak and hat and rushed up the side of the palace wall, his feet clinging to the hard surface like they were covered in glue. Eileen was impressed when Ash demonstrated his ability to use his Aura like hooks to hold onto various surfaces. His feet, if looked at with Aura Sensitive eyes, would look as though they had glowing blue-white curved hooks coming from their soles. His Aura locked into the Aura of the stone easily and latched him onto the rock easily, letting him sprint up the side of the wall. Ash reached the glassless window of his temporary room and immediately grabbed up his backpack. He changed into his usual attire from the wardrobe, leaving his little 'Guardian' costume on the large king-sized bed. His new outfit consisted of a navy blue trenchcoat, inspired by Angel's use of them. Under it he wore a thin black t-shirt which showed off his defined muscles from hard physical training. He wore baggy black jeans and casual boots on his legs and feet. His pokebelt was at attached to his waist at an angle, so that it hung diagonally on his waist. His five pokeballs were present on it, Ash kept the sixth space open until he could get Pikachu back. His back pack was also different from the ones he used to wear. This one was large, had a larger interior and had many pouches for storing different items. The bag was also pitch black with a red lightning bolt emblazoned on the front. Ash took up his bag and slung it onto his back, leaving out the room door instead of the window. He hadn't yet mastered getting his feet to a vertical surface when he left from the top; generally he fell away from the wall or cliff when he jumped. Ash flew down the stairs and entered the Entrance Hall of the Palace, where Lady Eileen and Anna were waiting, Anna's Mime Jr on the floor next to her. The three of them were at the grand double doors that served as the main entrance into the Palace.

"Ash… you have been fun to keep around and I will miss you greatly. Before you go I had Anna prepare you a gift," Eileen declared when Ash came closer.

Ash stood in front of them as Anna brought a small box out from behind her back. Ash took it and opened it with intrigue, gasping at what lay inside. It was a pair of Guardian Gauntlets, the mark of a true Guardian of Aura. They were black in colour, with small white gems on each knuckle, like a guard. These gems were surrounded by bands of yellow to accentuate them. On the back of the gloves, where the back of Ash's hand would be, were yellow Hoenn motifs, the half pokeball sign. Ash remembered the same symbol on his old hat which he wore when May was still around, except that that one was green. Ash smiled widely and pulled the gloves on, marvelling at how they sat on his hands like a second skin. Though they were incredibly thin, they would keep Ash's hands warm and were almost entirely damage proof, being held together not only by its tough stitching, but also by Ash's Aura.

"Thank you… both of you, for letting me stay here. I'll make sure to come visit again sometime," Ash replied, thanking them for both letting him stay and for their gift to him at once.

"It was no trouble. Besides I got a real _kick_ out of having a man around the Palace again," Eileen whispered to him, giggling in an odd manner.

Ash shivered slightly as he remembered Eileen was a reclusive pervert and could be extremely sensual and even erotic when she wanted to be. It was odd that such a kind, innocent Queen could be so… kinky. Ash nodded and bade his final farewells to them and walked out the doors, pulling Pidgeot's pokeball from his angled belt. With a flash and bursting sound his faithful avian companion appeared and Ash mounted himself on his back. The bird pokemon took off with a rapid beat of his wings and they pulled into the air, Ash waving back as they left what had been his home for the past third of a year. Ash turned to face forwards again and stared with fierce determination at the horizon. _'Showtime!'_ he thought with glee.

0o0o0o0o0o0

_Day __193: To Be A Master…_

Ash sat down on the brown leather couch in the Pokemon Centre, sighing as he relaxed his aching limbs. He had just gotten to Oreburgh City after hiking through Oreburgh Gate, which was rather rocky and filled with trainers itching for a battle. He had decided on making a new team of pokemon to travel with in the Sinnoh Region, his other pokemon being Champion-Level in experience. His current team consisted of Staravia, Turtwig, plus a Geodude from Oreburgh Gate, a Budew and his own Pachirisu. Like most of his other pokemon, these new additions to his family each had their own quirks. Staravia was a bold pokemon, trying new attacks and moves fearlessly. Turtwig was rather lazy, preferring to lie around than to be active, though was hyperactive in a battle. Geodude was stubborn and maintained any idea he got, regardless of how other thought. Budew was excessively happy, being incredibly cheerful at all times. Pachirisu was almost too much to handle, being incredibly fast and curious. Pachirisu also preferred to stay out of her pokeball and follow Ash around on the ground, or make him follow her as she bolted off.

"Thank God I got here… this trip is more than I bargained for. And Gary says he likes it here?" Ash muttered darkly.

'_Of course, my idea requires a lot of travelling… by going around the Sinnoh region winning badges and participating in Contests and doing a lot of things in general I should get quite a bit of televised publicity. There's even a program about trainers who fish! So if I get on TV, possibly one of my friends in this region will see it and try to contact me. It's all about chance though,'_ he thought, going over his plan again.

The door opened and Ash looked up. It was just another trainer… a young girl around fourteen with navy blue hair under a white winter hat. She wore large pink boots that reached her knees with a pink miniskirt to go with it. She also wore a sleeveless pink blouse with a white undershirt and had a small backpack slung over one shoulder. She seemed to look around as if confused and opted to stare in one direction blankly. _'Does she think staring at nothing will provide answers? Well I guess she's right, I'll go help,'_ Ash thought, feeling slightly irritated. He got up reluctantly, having sat down only a few minutes ago and walked over.

"Need help?" he asked politely.

The girl turned to him and her eyes widened to the size of soup plates. Ash suddenly got the feeling he would need to be moving again soon.

"Oh My God! You're Ash Ketchum right!? You're the big trainer everyone's talking about… "The World's Best Rookie" or something! What the hell am I supposed to do here? This is a Pokemon Centre right? Canyouhelpmefindmywayaroundhereplease?" the girl rambled on in a loud voice.

Ash sweatdropped as a bunch of trainers turned to look at him, unspoken challenges flying in his direction.

"Uh… yeah… I guess. I'm Ash, you get your pokemon healed here, this is a Pokemon Centre, and I suppose so," he listed, answering each of the girl's questions.

"Ooooh. I'm Dawn by the way, nice to meet you!" Dawn exclaimed, holding a near-trembling hand out to him.

"Are… you alright?" Ash asked cautiously.

Dawn blinked three times, staring at him blankly before comprehension 'Dawned' in her eyes and she nodded vigorously.

"I just had too much coffee this morning, you wouldn't believe how cheap it is here, everyone's so friendly and there's a lot to see! … this is Oreburgh City right?" Dawn exclaimed loudly.

"As far as I know…" Ash mumbled back.

Ash felt as though his head would explode as Dawn charged on in her loud voice. She reminded him of his Pachirisu, which was with Nurse Joy… probably raising hell with her Discharge attack. Dawn followed Ash as he led her to the front desk and told her briefly what to do upon entering a Pokemon Centre, Ash trying hard to ignore the many eyes following his every move. Ash finally noticed one person stand up and walk towards him, feeling as though things were about to get worse.

"You're Ash Ketchum? You don't look like much," the teenage boy declared.

Ash recognized him as being a part of the 'Ace Trainer' category. He was tall, slightly intimidating and highly arrogant. Plus all Ace Trainers seemed to wear the same thing, a tight red leather jacket, matching leather trousers, boots and a green belt. This Ace Trainer had orange spiky hair and ochre eyes, what seemed to be a permanent frown on his face. Ash took all this information and processed it in under half a second, trying to think of a suitable response that would make this trainer leave him alone.

"Neither do you, but of course, you are… so let's leave it at that, I need to get to the gym once my pokemon have been checked up," Ash replied smoothly.

The Ace Trainer frowned even deeper, if that was possible, and glanced at Dawn contemptuously before his eyes flickered back to Ash.

"Once your pokemon are back I challenge you to a battle! There's no need for you to be helping this… rookie here, when both of us clearly have better things to be doing," Ace Trainer retorted.

Ash sighed as Dawn's face turned a brick red and her eyes flared with anger. Ash closed his eyes as she moved to push the Ace Trainer back and, through his eyelids, Ash saw Dawn's Aura flickering wildly as she shoved him, a lot of Aura being focused in her right arm as she did so. The effect was spontaneous and her shove had quite a punch packed behind it, sending the Ace down to meet the ground. Ash opened his eyes and gave the Ace Trainer a pitying stare.

"I feel sorry for you man. You just had to piss her off," he told the decked guy.

The Ace Trainer got up, shrugging the incident off as he suddenly failed to notice Dawn's existence entirely. Dawn seemed to get even angrier now that the trainer was simply ignoring her. Ash felt a headache coming on and was saved when Nurse Joy appeared by the desk, with a silver tray in her hands, holding five pokeballs and Pachirisu, who was gazing up at him curiously with a small smile on her furry face. Nurse Joy smiled politely too and spoke out to Ash, before Dawn could start a brawl.

"Ash Ketchum? I have your pokemon here, they're fighting fit!" Nurse Joy told him cheerfully.

"Thanks."

Ash took back the five pokeballs and Pachirisu, who once again was out of her pokeball. She clambered up his arm and settled on the top of his head much like Aipom would. The Ace Trainer glanced at Ash's Pachirisu before giving off a 'hn' sound.

"Well, are we on for our battle? Though you may not want to fight with that squirrel if you can't even tame it," the Ace Trainer stated loftily.

Ash's eyes darkened.

"You're on…"

The two trainers walked outside, followed by Dawn and a bunch of other interested trainers. Ash exited through the doors and was led by Dawn to a nearby park, which would be a suitable battlefield. The Ace Trainer merely followed silently, his arms folded. Ash stepped up to the blank patch of ground in the park and faced off with the other trainer, who was positioned around fifteen feet away.

"One on one?" Ash called.

"Fine. I choose Trapinch!" the Ace Trainer declared, tossing a Great Ball out.

The ball opened and revealed an orange skinned turtle-like pokemon with a huge head and sharp-toothed jaw. It also had a small brown shell protecting its back and small, stubby legs. Ash glanced up to Pachirisu and the thunder squirrel nodded, jumping off his head and landing on the grassy floor, facing off the Trapinch.

"What a foolish mistake, my Trapinch is a Ground-Type!" the Ace Trainer declared haughtily.

"What's your name?" Ash asked.

"Dan. But it's not like it matters seeing as how I'm about to beat you!" Ace Trainer Dan replied.

**BATTLE SITUATION**

_**Ash's Pachirisu vs. Ace Trainer Dan's Trapinch**_

_**1 vs. 1;**__** no time limit.**_

**BATTLE BEGIN!**

"Trapinch, start things off with Bite!" Dan called.

Trapinch gave a reply and bounded towards Pachirisu, its mouth wide open. Its teeth were glowing a dark violet, indicating Dark-Type. Ash made no command and simply stood, watching as Pachirisu licked her tail, eyes closed. Trapinch crossed the distance between them in about four seconds and leapt forwards, hoping to bite down on the pokemon in front of it. However Trapinch was surprised to only hit dirt, as it crashed to the ground where Pachirisu used to be. Pachirisu, right beside it, gave a squirrelly giggle, before darting off to about five metres from Trapinch's right.

"Pachirisu, counter attack with Quick Attack!" Ash suddenly declared.

Pachirisu stood there for one second before blurring out of existence. There was a high pitched rushing sound and a smack as Pachirisu collided with Trapinch at great speed. Trapinch was thrown off its stubby legs and onto its back, winded by the move. Dan frowned and thought quickly of a new strategy to beat Pachirisu's overwhelming speed. Dan looked around the terrain to see what could be used as an advantage. The park was bare besides the play area and one or two large boulders nearly completely submerged into the ground.

"Trapinch, get up and use Rock Tomb, then follow it up with Sandstorm!" Dan ordered.

"Pachirisu, you know what this means…" Ash stated simply.

Pachirisu blinked and smiled happily before bounding towards the large boulders, being lifted Gaia kinetically from the ground as Trapinch glowed in a dark brown aura. Pachirisu's fluffy tail began to glow metallic silver as she rushed towards the two boulders now hurtling towards her. She used her Iron Tail attack to smash straight through the first one with a forward flip and spun around clockwise for a side-on smack that sent the rock careening towards Trapinch. Trapinch simply bit down on the big rock and crushed it to pebbles with its mighty jaws. However the distraction had stopped Trapinch from using Sandstorm.

"Now Pachirisu, use Discharge!" Ash called.

Pachirisu began sparking with lighting blue energy as she drew in all the electricity she could from around her. A bolt of electricity shot from a nearby phone booth and Pachirisu drew it in, charging up for her attack. Dan simply smirked arrogantly and waited, making no move to stop Ash. Ash and Pachirisu shared a glance, Ash nodded, and Pachirisu 'discharged'. The bolt of electricity was immense and extremely bright, sounding like the whine of a buzz saw hitting metal, without the shearing sound (Think: Lightning Rifle thingies from The Matrix and you'll know the sound). Trapinch let the attack collide and was protected from the energy by its Ground-Type element. Ash merely grinned.

"Full power Pachirisu!"

Pachirisu gave a shout of 'Pachi!' before the lightning streaming from her small body intensified and the light emanating completely blinded the watching trainers. After what seemed the hours the light and sound ebbed away and everyone's vision returned to normal. Dan looked back, ready to call for a counter strike but was dumbstruck when his eyes fell on Trapinch's unconscious form. Pachirisu breathed heavily, seemingly winded from all the energy she had unleashed.

**END BATTLE!**

"W-What? How did you-?" Dan began.

"Simple. Trapinch may be able to withstand all that electricity but the air around it began to heat up significantly. It's like being hit with Electric and Fire attacks at the same time," Ash explained, cutting him off.

The crowd around them cheered for Ash's victory and brilliant strategy, Dawn jumping up and down with excitement. Ash beckoned Pachirisu over and let her sit behind his head, her furry little feet resting on either shoulder for support. Ash turned to Dawn and motioned for her to come with him, back to the Pokemon Centre. The crowd dispersed as they travelled back, both silent as Dawn contemplated Ash's battle style and as Ash contemplated what he was going to have for lunch. As they entered Ash received much fewer glares from the surrounding trainers for which he was grateful. Ash and Dawn made their way up to the Main Desk, where Nurse Joy was waiting for them, a tray with three pokeballs on them in front of her. Dawn smiled and accepted her pokemon, which had been left as he and Dawn had been taken outside for Ash's little 'exercise'. Dawn slipped the pokeballs onto her belt and turned to Ash.

"Well it was nice meeting you Ash! I hope we'll meet up again sometime?" she made the end seem like a question.

"I'm sure we will," Ash replied. "Anyways, I have a Gym Leader to beat."

Dawn nodded and gave Ash a small wave before bouncing out of the Center, still full of energy. Ash chuckled under his breath and glanced up at Pachirisu, who returned his look with a toothy grin. Ash smiled slightly and walked out the front door, into the sunlight of the day. A cool breeze whipped through the area as Ash travelled to the large modern building in the centre of the city, which he assumed was the Gym. Sure enough there was a sign on the wall next to the front door which proclaimed: Oreburgh City Gym, Leader: Roark, "Call me Roark the Rock!" Ash just had to snicker at the lame sign and immediately stepped through the door, confident that he would win against this Rock-type Leader. Ash guessed that his best bets would lie in Turtwig, Budew and Geodude for victory. As he wandered further into the building he came across the battle hall, complete with spectator stands and a large, rocky battlefield. Ash saw no sign of activity anywhere and was about to assume that no-one was home when he suddenly heard a violent coughing sound. Ash whipped around, looking for the source of the surprising noise and spotted a young man with long magenta hair, glasses and a mining helmet emerge from a dusty hole in the battlefield.

"Are you Roark?" Ash asked.

The man jumped in surprise and blinked up at Ash.

"How did you get in here? The front door's supposed to be locked…" he stated.

"It wasn't… I just came in, looking for a Gym Battle. So, are you Roark or do you know where he is if you aren't?" Ash asked once again.

"Yes I'm Roark. Also, I accept your challenge Mr…?" Roark left the statement open.

"Ash. Ash Ketchum," Ash replied.

"Well then Ash, let's get this party started!" Roark declared, pulling a pokeball from his belt.

_Day 382: Friends Forever_

Ash felt like singing, he was so happy. He'd recently won his third Sinnoh League badge and he'd received a phone call at the Pokemon Center from Gary, saying that he'd seen Ash on television. It looked like his plan was working! Then Ash realized something… he still hadn't found any of his friends and he'd been at it for around half of a year. Ash knew full well that he could've had around six or seven badges by now if he hurried but he had searched his way through each and every small town or village he'd come across for anyone familiar to no success. Ash sighed and felt himself become slightly depressed over this thought. Ash decided that it would be best if he continued instead of just sitting on his hands in a Pokemon Center, waiting for something to happen. As well as this, Ash was itching to continue some more training with his Aura, as he had had little to no chances when he entered the more populated sections of this region, where Aura was completely unheard of. Ash got up off his seat and began to leave the Center, brushing past a girl on his way out. Once outside he looked out over the town on the small hill the Pokemon Center was built on. Ash noticed the park nearby where he had just recently defeated some thug with a Golem, who was all talk and acting like he was some kind of tough guy. Ash's Turtwig easily defeated the Golem with a single Razor Leaf attack and Ash received some money as the stake. This was something new entering Pokemon Battles, the loser of the battle would pay out a small sum of cash to the other as their 'prize' for winning. This had thrown Ash for a loop when he realized that Pokemon Training would become a true profession now.

"Well its time to get on the road again, right Pachirisu?" Ash asked.

Ash received no response and nearly bashed his head against something when he remembered that Pachirisu and his other pokemon were with Nurse Joy, receiving a check-up. Ash walked back inside, feeling foolish when he overheard Nurse Joy.

"Oh my, I'm sorry but that won't be possible."

"Is there no more spaces?"

"No, you require a partner… it's a Team Contest, where two trainers work together to show that they can succeed in a situation that requires teamwork with someone unfamiliar."

Nurse Joy was explaining the rules of a nearby contest to the girl that Ash had went past on his way out of the door and Ash finally got a better look at her. She seemed to be about his age, with long brunette hair and sapphire blue eyes that seemed to be as cold as ice yet with a certain gleam in them, which Ash couldn't work out. His eyes were then immediately drawn to her chest, where she supported a rather large pair of breasts for someone who seemed so young. She was also slightly taller than average, reaching 5 foot 6 inches in total. Her hair was free, trailing past her shoulders and she had a black bandanna on her head along with a black long-sleeved t-shirt that had a simple angel wings design across the chest. She wore black combat jeans that were longer than necessary in the legs and had that seemed to be made of pockets. Finally, underneath them, was a pair of tough black combat boots that looked like they were used for kicking people in the face, if the dirt on them was any indication… that or this girl traveled a lot. Ash felt himself being drawn to this girl and he felt himself speak before he was able to think clearly.

"I'll enter with her…"

As soon as Ash had said it he realized that he wouldn't be able to back out now, as the girl had just turned to face him and recognition flashed in her eyes. _'Great… she must be another fan girl or something. At least she's pretty hot,' _Ash thought sullenly but with a brighter after tone. However he almost missed it when the girl opened her mouth and spoke to him. He kept an ear open as he quickly grabbed his pokeballs off the front desk and set them in his belt, which used a light magnetic system to make sure the pokeballs wouldn't fall out on their own.

"Do I know you?"

"I'm not sure," Ash replied casually, playing along with this girl.

"Well my name is May… May Maple," she declared, offering her hand.

"May… I remember that name. It was the name of a close friend of mine's at one point," Ash replied as he took her hand, not remembering having ever asked his missing friend her second name. He made a point of asking her when he met her again so that he wouldn't mistake her for another girl called May.

"Is your name by any chance Ash Ketchum?" May asked, her voice slightly higher than normal.

"You know of me. Well I suppose I am getting quite a name for myself out here in Sinnoh," Ash replied with a grin, putting a hand on the back of his head.

Now came the part where he would act all modest and the girl would drool over him because he was so cool. These females made Ash feel queasy with their annoying ability to notice him and their high pitched squealing voices. They also annoyed him greatly as they should have better things to do than to stalk him around Sinnoh. Ash blinked and looked into May's eyes, noticing just how blue they were. She was staring at him intensely, just like the other May used to… _'Oh crap… I mistook her for a fangirl… What do I do? What do I do? I know! Admit nothing, deny everything and make counter accusations!' _Ash thought rapidly while in a short stupor. May seemed to get tired of the silence and spoke up.

"Well then Mr. Ketchum, I suggest we get signed up and get to know each other a little better," she exclaimed, with a steely tone in her voice.

Ash gave her a look and nodded, clenching his hands as Nurse Joy returned with an entry application in the coming Pokemon Contest. Ash noticed the number 7 as their team and hoped that it was a sign of luck for him. He quickly scribbled in his signature and then May signed hers roughly before Nurse Joy scanned their pokedex's to confirm their entry. After that was done and each trainer received their pokedex's back, Ash and May left to sit down in a quiet corner of the room, where no one would disturb them.

"Well… is it really you May… but then… how, better yet where did you end up?" Ash asked right away.

"Honestly? I don't know for sure... It almost became home to me, but I'm also glad I left. But we still need to find the others, and find out where _they_ took Pikachu," May answered.

"I have a theory that it was to do with those lightning bolts we were hit with. The Legendary Raikou can travel as a thundercloud over continents at great speeds, so it's possible to assume that the same was done to us but we had no control over where we would go. I'm just amazed we survived it. Anyway, my plan was to go through the Sinnoh League, which would be broadcast across the world, and hopefully some of you would be watching and find out where I am. I guess it worked then?" Ash said hopefully.

"I knew you were in the Sinnoh League but I've been in this region for the past year and a half. I was in Sinnoh City, when I woke up but the place was locked up tighter than a Magikarp's a…" May trailed to a halt as Ash gave her a hard stare.

Ash heard movement near their position and failed to resist the urge to look. Doing so made him groan in frustration. Swaggering towards them, was that guy that Ash kicked in and two 'friends', obviously here for him, or something from him. Ash felt May stiffen beside him and he knew that she was aware of something being wrong. The guy, Ash never asked his name and nor did he really care, reached their seat and dropped himself right between them with the casualness of some friends meeting up. He leaned back as he gave Ash a hard stare, before his eyes were drawn to May and her chest. May seemed to not notice as she gave the guy the coldest stare Ash had ever seen a pair of eyes produce. Ash frowned but maybe it was May's relentless stare that caused the thug to turn back to Ash with a cheesy grin on his face.

"So we meet again, eh? You know… I think you owe me some money. There's no way that crappy little shit of a Turtwig could've beaten my Golem, I think you cheated!" the guy said dramatically, and casually.

"And I think you'd best go annoy someone else with your little sob story. Grass types beat both Rock and Ground types, which a Golem is both of. Hey you know what? I'll give you one dollar and you can go call someone who cares," Ash replied, equally as casually.

The man's face darkened and a vein in his forehead stood out. He got up off the couch, his two friends moving ever so slightly closer to them. Ash noticed this but apparently the Nurse Joy had also noticed trouble brewing and walked past, giving them all a warning look. The guy watched her pass and Ash was almost sure that he was checking out her ass as she left to do her rounds. Ash felt his pulse quicken and his temper begin to boil but kept his cool, despite the guy really rubbing him the wrong way. The guy noticed Ash's mood and grinned widely.

"Let's take this outside," he sneered, walking off.

"Gladly," both Ash and May replied in unison.

They got up and followed after the three bullies, Ash sending May some warning looks, trying to let her know that he'd handle it. However, May seemed entirely oblivious and seemed almost eager for this confrontation, almost walking faster than Ash to get outside. As they both exited the Center they noticed that the man who had challenged them was not there, which sent alarm bells blaring in Ash's mind. May sensed danger before she saw it and ducked back as the man leapt from the side with a broken bottle in his hand, which had a large pointed shard looking sharp enough to cut through flesh protruding from one end. Ash was then surrounded by three more surprise attackers and was on the defensive, as he had only expected two but it seemed that one was left outside as an extra surprise for the pair of them. May watched the guy she was locked in combat with warily as he stared hungrily at her ample chest for a moment before lunging again. May scowled slightly and whipped a hand to his wrist, locking it in a vice-like grip, which caused him to drop the bottle as she squeezed down hard on the main vein that supplied blood to his hand. Ash was surprised at her display of reflexes and speed as he let his Aura begin to bleed out into his muscles and nerves, increasing his reflexes and strength by a factor of two or so.

"Ash I got this one, how's it on your end?" May called to him.

"Just peachy!" Ash called back with a laugh.

He suddenly ducked as two came in from the sides, both of them punching each other instead of Ash. The two idiots then began to fight each other instead of their original target and Ash was left with just one opponent. Ash shook his head sarcastically and his eyes flashed a brilliant blue as his Aura began to gather strength near his hands. He clenched his left hand and held out his right hand to the side, open palmed and facing the sky. Ash's eyes closed for a second as a small orb of blue light, no larger than a marble appeared above his gloved hand, hovering there like a little glowing gem. The orb grew larger and larger until it was softball sized and spinning rapidly in his hand, a whooshing noise like rushing wind emanating from it.

"I dunno what trick you're pulling kid but when I'm through with you I'm gonna take your little tart and when I'm done with her you'll both be pushing up daisies somewhere far away," Ash's final opponent whispered to him menacingly.

"You have a dark heart, one of venom and malice. I will bring in the light," Ash intoned.

He tensed as his Aura flared, the Aura Sphere in his hand spinning faster with a fiery glow bursting from around it. He drew back his hand and pushed it forward, almost gently, as the attack blasted off of his palm and straight into the guy's chest. There was no visible injury, the man just collapsed as Ash's Aura drained him of all his energy to remain conscious. Ash noticed May staring at him with something akin to awe in her eyes as the guy she held struggled to get his hand free, the circulation being cut off and his hand starting to go pale. May didn't even turn around as she let his hand go and elbowed him right in the face with the same arm, bursting his nose and knocking him out cold. Ash winced at the brutality yet effectiveness of the blow and stared back at May, wondering just how strong she was, and wondering what it was that motivated her to become so… cold. Ash noticed that May had caught his stare and gave a small shrug before he turned to the unconscious guy, grabbing him by his arms and dragging him over to where the two fighting each other had knocked themselves out hitting a wall while wrestling around. Ash then grabbed another one of them and hefted them up and onto his back, feeling rather disappointed that he hadn't been physically exercising that much over the past few months. Ash noticed May slowly walking towards him as though slightly nervous. He turned towards her, struggling slightly under the weight of two unconscious, fully-grown men over his back.

"What're you doing?" May asked as she got closer.

"Taking these assholes to the hospital…" Ash grunted back, struggling under their combined weight.

May nodded and grabbed the guy with the broken nose by the wrist, dragging him across the ground to where the fourth guy lay unconscious. With just as much effort as Ash she managed to get both men over her shoulders in a fireman's carry. From there Ash and May began to drag them off to the nearby hospital which Ash knew was only three streets away, since the Pokemon Center wouldn't accept humans as patients. While they walked they were given very curious looks by passing commoners to the city, some of which had pokemon on their shoulders or following them on foot. Ash noticed May looking at some who seemed to be a little like his own, younger, self with a Pikachu clinging to his right shoulder, walking past and the sight made May cringe visibly. Ash just decided ignored all except the ones he carried and May, who was having a better time of carrying them than him. _'Either she's stronger than me or those guys are pretty lightweight.' _Ash thought. However, as he judged May's form he found it likely that it was the former, and not the latter. May's biceps, triceps and forearms all bore defined and larger than usual muscles, showing how toned her upper body was and Ash was sure May was now extremely fit as she showed near enough no strain except for the tenseness in her jaw. However she was still able to speak as she opened her mouth.

"So Ash, aside from the Sinnoh League, I noticed that you're wearing gloves similar to those of a Guardian of Aura and that you used an Aura Attack on one of those guys… where did you learn that?" May asked, as the hospital finally came into sight after the few minutes of walking they had endured. Ash mentally sighed, thinking of how to put it in as few words as possible, without giving too much away, and he took a deep breath.

"Well when I woke up I found myself at that castle where the Aura Festival took place… the place where we met Lucario. I was on the roof of one of the towers when I woke up… so I took advantage of being there and read up all I could about Aura. Normally people aren't allowed as it's… dangerous. But seeing as I'm was still the current Guardian of Aura for that year and for my knowledge of Aura, I was allowed to access their archive. Back when we went there for the festival, when I was in the Tree of Beginning, while we were separated, me and Lucario found Pikachu and made it to the centre of the Tree… but the Tree was dying, along with Mew who needed the Tree to survive, so Lucario and I offered our Aura to Mew so that it would live be able to get the Tree stabilized. I used the gloves of Sir Aaron, who was in a kind of crystalline stasis there, and managed to channel my Aura through them so I got new ones custom made for me as they seem to somehow help focus one's mind on their Aura," Ash explained. "Now I'm an honorary Guardian of Aura and using a lot of research, the reason Sir Aaron and I have a similar Aura pattern is because… he's my great, great, great, and so forth granddad."

To say that May was impressed was saying that she was hated Pokemon Contests with a passion. May seemed to finally understand how Ash was able to climb that tree using only his feet so long ago. He used his Aura to anchor himself to the tree's natural Aura, like spiked climbing boots, only much stronger and hooked so that he wouldn't come off unless they faltered. May let the two thugs she was carrying fall to the concrete as she realized they were right outside the city hospital, Ash doing likewise. They walked off and continued to talk to one another about what they were doing during their separation. Since Ash had still been in Hoenn he had managed to scour the area a lot to find any trace of Angel and Pikachu, however he came up short. When May told of her missing Pokemon Ash smiled at her knowingly.

"Our pokeballs had a safety feature, as do all standard balls, that teleport them off our person to whoever looks after our 'boxed' pokemon, whenever the balls are in immediate danger of being irreparably damaged. Your pokemon should all be with Professor Oak in Kanto at the moment. Mine are and I recovered my pokemon along with a new pokedex from that Professor Rowan guy here in Sinnoh… he's a pretty gruff guy but he's nice all round. He lives back at Sandgem Town," Ash explained. "It was created by Professor Oak when he was younger. He got the idea when a person's pokemon were found dead inside their pokeballs after he had been electrocuted badly by some stray Magneton. The electricity screwed up the pokeballs and the life patterns of the pokemon inside were ceased for a millisecond but it is enough to kill them. So Prof. Oak, being a brainiac, built a safety feature that relocates the pokeballs with the Remote Transporter System to whomever gave you your pokedex… but I asked Oak to transfer your pokemon to his lab when you came to Kanto… so they'll be with him."

May's eyes lit up and Ash had to cover his ears as she squealed with delight a little too much like some of his more rabid fangirls. However when May leapt onto him and latched herself around his neck he didn't feel so bad. Especially after her large, soft mounds were pressed onto his arm. Things were definitely beginning to look up for them indeed…

_Day 448: The Best Laid Plans… Often Fail_

Ash groaned as once again Mizu was being difficult for them to handle. However she seemed to have gained a lot more knowledge about every little thing since her absence from the group. She fixed the dishwasher simply by clicking her fingers, she named several unknown plants growing in the back garden and after a 'Shazam!' the chalk was renewed and the large blackboard was cleaned. However right now she was refusing to cooperate as Gary had asked her to show him her mech wings, so that he could see how they worked. Ash, Gary and Mizu were currently in the large garage that adjoined the house of the Star family. Michelle and Stuart, Mizu and Angel's parent were currently out shopping for supplies, as Jake liked to call them. Ash didn't quite know how Jake had managed to convince them to let complete strangers live in their large house for so long but he was glad he was back in a family background. Mizu was sitting, cross-legged on the workbench that had various tools scattered over it, her tail swishing angrily through the air now and then. Her ears quivered at the slightest noise and Ash had seen many things simply explode whenever Mizu had become too agitated. _'That hammer isn't looking too friendly right now…'_ he thought. Around them were various shelves and benches used for the construction of small woodwork or metalwork items. There was also another bench that could be used for heavy-duty construction like a mini-factory. Gary was speaking again so Ash tried to pay attention whilst keeping an eye on the slightly twitchy hammer.

"But why not? Surely it's not a problem for someone of your… unique talents?" Gary asked.

"No. It's just like your experimenting on me, taking notes and making results of something you truly don't understand!" Mizu replied with surprising venom in her voice.

"Mizu calm down. If it bothers you so much then I'll leave it be. I'm sorry…" Gary replied.

Ash watched as Mizu paused, her entire body tensing up at Gary's words. The hammer shuddered once before becoming still and Ash heard Gary give a small gasp. Mizu had jumped off the bench and enveloped him in a large hug, her large baggy sleeves draped over his shoulders. Ash could've sworn he heard a small sniffle but kept to himself as he slowly began to leave, trying to be as quiet as possible. Gary was left alone, feeling rather awkward at the situation he was now… engulfed in. He patted Mizu lightly on her shoulder and she stood up straight once more, her eyes slightly bright from what could've been tears.

"Only you can really say that and mean it, you idiot. You're always so uptight about possibly hurting my feeling that I almost feel pity for you," Mizu said slowly. "But, if it would make you slightly happy… I guess I'll show you."

Gary watched in awe as there was no slicing sound this time. Mizu took off her baggy top to reveal a low cut undershirt with nothing covering her upper back or shoulders. Gary didn't chance taking a look but rather chose to watch as what appeared to be triple jointed poles extended from her back with a hydraulic hissing sound. The poles turned on an axial joint at her shoulder blades he couldn't see to extend sideways, like wing frames. The poles suddenly split open and various long, angular panels, tools and metal feather-like apparatus emerged (think of the "She, the Ultimate Weapon" anime. Chise's little black wings that come out her back, they look like them only silver and some more apparatus). These wings then flexed once, revolving around a number of agile rotations, in all directions before they suddenly bent over Mizu's shoulders and, with a mechanical whirl, transformed into what resembled two highly advanced cannons of some sort. Mizu smirked lightly before the cannons deconstructed back into her wings in less than a second and she began to float off of the ground, the shard shaped panels of metal on her wings glowing as she did so.

"Oh, wow… where did you get those upgrades? That thing there looks like a Plasma Cutter! That's only for heavy welding or decommission of military grade metals! This thing here has so many attachments, it's like a whole screwdriver kit in one! I don't even want to begin guessing what the rest of it is… also, I'm glad to see that it doesn't seem to hurt you now," Gary added, smiling slightly.

"There's more to the Orre Region than just sandstorms and oasis villages. I don't want to talk about it right now… maybe later," Mizu said quietly.

"I understand." Gary replied.

Suddenly Mizu's wings snapped back shut and vanished into whatever they were held in her body with. She growled fiercely at Gary and a set of three shiny metallic claws burst from her right hand. These claws were more sharply curved than the last set she had and they were bright silver, which Gary recognized as pure Silver Rock Stone, which was named a stone since it was mined from rock, now smelted like normal metals, such as bronze, copper or steel. Silver Rock Stone, also known as Silvide, was one of the strongest known substances in the world and was incredibly rare to find. Gary stopped paying attention to the claws and looked back into Mizu's eyes, seeing hurt, pain and confusion in her amethyst orbs.

"You understand?!?! What could you possibly understand about me!?" Mizu screeched. "You have no idea what I went through to have these forced upon me!"

"They w-were forced upon you? Why? Hell, screw the why. I'll tell you this now Mizu, grow… the fuck… up. Right now! I have an eye missing now and I have to get a robotic replacement put in to raise my visual acuity again but I sure as hell don't want one. Still, I'll get one anyways and do you know why? Because it'll help me look after my friends, that's why. Oh yes it's being forced on me and I may not be completely human afterwards but it's also a gift in itself as it'll give me an advantage that others don't have! I shouldn't whine and moan and be all 'poor me' because I should deal with it and use it to my advantage. You should do the same… besides… they look cool," Gary added somewhat lamely at the end of his rant.

Mizu stared at him as though he'd grown another head that belong to a mutant pokemon, which spat acid. Her breathing was short and quick and her eyes began to unfocus slightly, making Gary begin to worry. When Mizu fell forwards, Gary was already upon her, catching her and lowering her gently to the floor.

"What's the matter?" Gary asked, all his anger and frustration at Mizu's recent behavior replaced with concern.

"I… to fit all that machinery… my lung… taken out," Mizu wheezed quietly.

"To fit those wings inside your body they had to remove a lung and you only have one now?" Gary asked, piecing together what she was mumbling.

Mizu nodded slowly and seemed to be getting her breath back. Gary sighed quietly and gazed pitifully upon Mizu as she coughed a little as her one lung fought to supply enough air to her brain, which required more oxygen than average as it was much more active than the average human cerebrum. After a few minutes of gasping and panting Mizu was able to sit up, leaning on Gary's shoulder for support. Gary simply wrapped one arm around her shoulder and was slightly surprised when she snuggled herself closer to him, her head coming to rest under his chin. Gary felt he needed to say something but when he spoke Mizu's voice rang out in time with his.

"I'm sorry…"

Mizu and Gary both blinked but were interrupted when the mood was shattered by Jimmy bursting through the door. He seemed to be out of breath and leant on his knees, his right hand over his shoulder, his thumb pointing back the way he had come. Gary and Mizu stared at him in bewilderment as he was finally able to get his breath back. The three words he uttered made Gary gasp and Mizu become completely alert. Gary felt a floating feeling overcome him and for the edges of his vision to glow purples, greens and blues in what appeared to be Psychic energy. Then everything went dark and fizzed back into existence with a different scene before his eyes. Jake was pointing to a diagram on the blackboard with his finger while Ash, May and Rebekah stood in random spots around the room.

"Mizu did we just…?" Gary asked.

"Yes. Teleport. Where is she?" Mizu asked, broadcasting her last question to Jake.

Jake echoed Jimmy's words as he spoke once more, his tone was one of firm confidence and with an air of authority, which made everyone else pay attention.

"We found Angel. She's being held here…" Jake said, indicating to the drawing once more.

"And what is that exactly?" Gary asked, unsure of what the long rectangle, various lines and circles all meant.

"Observe," Jake stated.

He began to use the chalk to create a multitude of little dots around the diagram and ended by making a large circular line, from the middle of the left side to the edge of the bottom side of the board. The additions made what the diagram was supposed to be painfully clear to all those in the room.

"A space station?" Mizu asked. "Fuck me gently, that's going to be hard to reach without some sort of spaceship."

Everyone present ignored Mizu's colorful use of language and Ash immediately spoke up.

"Looks like I need to ask some old friends a favour."

* * *

**Well it's not as long as the last chapter I don't know for sure but I'm finally done. If you want to leave comments about the language used or any of the references or situations of the sexual nature then feel free to do so, if you don't like it then I'll keep it to moderate violence and language. Anyways again I'm so so so so so so so so so sorry about how long this has taken. It's 00:05am right now on a school night so I'd best be going now. Next up I've decided to combine Gary's and Jimmy's chapters as they will be the first to contact each other. No more spoilers! No more reading! Time for bed! Byeee…**

**Dark Angel Crew: Come back soon!**


	31. Chapter 31: Gary & Jimmy: Big Plans

**Dark Angel**

**Hey-diddly-ho peeps! Yep, am alive and kicking… well typing, but who cares anyway? My connections to BT was cut off for almost a full week so I've done nothing but play Halo 3, Unreal Tournament and read books or add to this. Anyways I need a small vote, starting when this chapter is added and ending 24 hours later. Ok here's the question: Should I do a makeover of some of my earlier chapters to bring them up to speed and give them more substance? My prelims have finally ended this week, since it's the weekend and I'll be hard at work studying but until then I'm happy with writing.**

**Dark Angel Crew: Damn right!**

**Yeah… well as I've said this is Jimmy and Gary's chapter together. Then I'll write Mizu's, Jake's and the big rescue chapter, which will be more like another Angel/Sabre chapter and have loads of action in it. Also there'll be more mature situations now that the characters have aged quite a bit.**

**Begin!

* * *

**

**Chapter 31: Gary/Jimmy: Little People, Big Plans**

_Day 1: Phone your friends_

Gary's vision, already bad, was too dark for him to see, though he could feel something lying on top of, or maybe underneath him. His sense of direction was awhirl with confusing signals and he was having a hard time telling up from down. Finally Gary decided to try and move but a heavy force was preventing him from doing so. This annoyed Gary to no end as he couldn't see, even though his working eye was open. A cold wind brushed past his face and Gary shivered, noticing that he could see brief glimpses of light as he did so. Then it clicked…

"Bastard long hair…" Gary muttered as he began shaking his head to get his hair out of his eyes.

Once his hair was moved Gary could finally see. Though he didn't really like what he saw in any case. He was staring at a familiar pair of faces he remembered glimpsing at the base underneath the Hoenn Space Towers. It was the two scientists that Mizu had teleported away with, and then returned on her own without them. Obviously these two were of some importance to the group he had, somewhat foolishly, joined up with. Gary couldn't stand the silence of the two scientists watching him and finally spoke up, making them jump slightly.

"Umm… why can't I move?" he asked bluntly.

"We've set up a Gravitational Strength Enhancer, to keep you from moving too quickly. You've been quite badly hurt," the female spoke up in a motherly sort of way.

"Ooookkkaaaayy," Gary said in confusion. "And how does this GSE thing work? Oh, better yet, how am I hurt?"

"Look down," the male replied.

Gary looked down and choked back a yell of shock. There was a rather large burn on his chest where his heart lay and the rest of his body was littered with cuts, bruises, and one leg was at an odd angle. Gary understood now why they didn't move him as it probably would've caused more damage.

"Ok, thanks… now then. Who are you two? I remember seeing you in the Space Tower Base," Gary stated.

"Yes. My name is Michelle Star and this is my husband Stuart. We're scientists," Michelle declared.

"Star… does that make you related to Mizu? Are you her parents perhaps?" Gary questioned.

Michelle looked surprised at how quickly Gary made the assumption and also at how accurate it was. She gave him a brief nod and whispered into Stuart's ear before leaving. Gary took his time in looking around, to find out where about he was. On his left were dry, brown earth and a place where the ground just stopped, which Gary assumed was a cliff of some sort. On his right was a two storey house with a garage attached to one side. Michelle was entering the white building through a red door, with a silver knocker on the front. The roof was equipped with two satellite dishes, a bunch of aerials and a medium sized telescope. Gary watched as Stuart, who was standing near a silver machine emitting a purple glow, sat down near him and gave him a hard stare.

"We've answered your questions, now you answer ours. What happened?" Stuart asked forcefully.

"A pokemorph resembling a Zapdos shot me with a bolt of lightning. Everything went dark and cold for a while before I woke up here with you two leering at me," Gary answered defensively.

Stuart gave a small chuckle.

"So it was Electra, huh? Well she and Ross were always friends with Angel and Mizu; I never thought they'd turn on them. And incorporating Raikou characteristics was risky, it'd make her more unstable then she already was anyway…" he muttered to himself.

Gary gave him a look with his good eye, before he felt himself become rather tired. Not wanting to strain himself or his many injuries, Gary let himself be engulfed in his fatigue and drift off to sleep.

_Nearby…_

Jimmy watched as the woman went into the house and the man stayed near Gary, the machine still doing whatever it was doing. Jimmy winced at the memory of waking up to a rushing feeling only to crash into the ground on something soft. He'd got up and, with a shout, realized he'd landed on top of Gary from wherever they had fallen. Jimmy sighed and took a look around from the back of the house where he was hiding. There was a black 4x4 jeep parked near him and a small arrangement of park equipment. There was a see-saw, a pair of swings and one of those rotating circular platforms that sat at an angle. All of it was kind of old looking, as though they hadn't been used in a long time.

"Well, this place looks much different from where I was last," Jimmy mumbled to himself. "I wonder if the lightning was like what Raikou does. I remember that Attila and Hun pair trying to capture one, only to have it shock itself and turn into a thundercloud."

Jimmy looked back around the corner and noticed that the man was sitting down now and speaking to Gary, who appeared to have woken up. Jimmy couldn't make out what they were saying but eventually the man got up and left Gary, lying next to the glowing machine. Once the scientist had gone back inside, Jimmy ran from his hiding place to where Gary lay and kneeled down just behind the machine, in case it was doing something weird.

"I should phone for help…" Jimmy muttered as he pulled out his Pokegear.

He was surprised as it sparked and fizzed, refusing to activate or work at all. Jimmy realized that the shock must have short-circuited it. He got back up and looked back to the house, weighing his options. He could leave the area to try and find help, or he could try to find a phone inside the house. _'Plan B it is…' _Jimmy decided. He waked up to the front door cautiously, expecting something to explode in his presence. Once at the door he slowly tried the handle and was surprised when the door opened. The catch on the lock was on, stopping the door from locking when it closed. Jimmy nearly laughed at the two scientists and took a look around. He was in a small hall with three doors and a staircase around him. There were voices coming from the door on his left so Jimmy crept forward, towards the door beside the stairs. He opened it and noticed that he was in a bedroom, one with toys and some more modern accessories around. A high-tech computer sat on a desk while a small Chikorita doll sat on the foot of the double bed with a light pink Jigglypuff print on the bed cover. Jimmy smiled slightly and noticed a picture frame on the bedside table, as well as rather advanced textbooks in the bookcase. Jimmy crept to the table and picked up the portrait to get a better look at it. It was a picture of Angel! She was dressed in loose black sports fatigues as she punched a punching bag. The picture was taken at just the right time as the punching bag burst from the blow. Looking closer, Jimmy noticed the two scientists from before looking on sombrely. The Angel in the picture looked around ten or so years old, which meant that this picture was taken quite a long time ago, plus Angel's wings weren't showing but her eyes and hair seemed the same. Perhaps Angel had had more modifications made to her during her childhood. However the largest surprise was that Angel was smiling, not a relieved smile or sarcastic smirk… rather a truly happy smile and a wide one at that. Jimmy couldn't recall ever seeing Angel smile that wide simply from being happy.

"I almost forgot… I know almost nothing about this girl," Jimmy whispered. "Yet I decided to travel with her and her friends to pursue a goal."

"It is a good goal none the less," a voice spoke behind him.

Jimmy whipped around, his fists raised to strike the possible threat. However he lowered them when he saw that it was the woman from before. Despite his sparring with Rebekah, Jimmy thought it wrong to hit a woman with the intent to harm. Besides, this woman didn't look particularly threatening; in fact she was looking at him with something akin to desperation. Jimmy felt somewhat foolish for letting himself be discovered so easily but he had at least found a phone he could use. There was one on the wall next to the door where he came in, however it was secluded which explained why he hadn't noticed it.

"Your goal," the woman suddenly spoke, making Jimmy jump. "You wish to permanently disband Team Rocket, yes? Me and my husband agree with you, however it is only a matter of time before Giovanni finds out that we are missing and will assume we have attempted to escape. This guarantees our termination upon discovery… My husband and I have come to the conclusion that you and your young friend here have been separated from Angel, Mizu and any others they may have recruited. Are we correct?"

Jimmy was impressed by the woman's deductive skills and silently applauded her.

"Yes, you're almost entirely correct. Except for one thing… I don't care about anywhere else; I just want Team Rocket out of Johto. My homeland has been disturbed by these fools enough and I will see them gone. However Angel and the others are insisting on starting with Hoenn, which is where I assume we still are?" Jimmy explained.

"Indeed, this is the land of Hoenn. I'm sorry to hear of your motives for joining with my daughters on what is to be a long and hard quest. Perhaps you should simply leave them then and gather your own group to attack the Team Rocket in Johto?" the woman replied, sounding slightly depressed.

"Before I forget my manners," Jimmy started, surprised at the reasoning the woman had just given him. "May I ask your name?"

"Michelle Star," was his reply.

"I see. Well if the picture here wasn't any indication then the name should give it away. You must be Angel's mother," Jimmy retorted slowly, still cautious. Jimmy also realized that he wouldn't leave Angel and the others… even though he had a slightly different plan, they were his friends and he wouldn't leave them.

"And Mizu's as well. However, though I do not know you or your friend, we know you both joined my daughters' group and for that we must believe you can help us!" Michelle exclaimed.

Jimmy blinked as Michelle looked almost ready to cry. He glanced back to the wall phone, then again to Michelle, wondering what to do. Why did they need his help? Did they know what happened to the others? Jimmy took his time deciding, but when he did he was sure it was the right one.

"What kind of help do you need?" Jimmy asked.

"Team Rocket have captured… Angel. Also, Mizu has vanished from the tracker's sensors and we need to find them!" Michelle explained; her voice strained.

Jimmy nodded in agreement, as he thought of how he had gotten to know the two girls personalities and befriended them, and Michelle gave a sigh of relief in response. Jimmy then asked if he could use the phone and was surprised when she allowed him to, leaving the room afterwards. Jimmy wasted no time in grabbing the handset and dialling Professor Elm in New Bark Town. The phone seemed to be working as a dial tone played in his ear, indicating that the phone in Elm's lab was ringing. While Jimmy waited he had another look around the room and noticed a few things that looked new. One was what appeared to be Angel's old, white trenchcoat. It was well worn and torn in a lot of places just like he remembered it. Then there was a dark blue pendant, the one Angel got from Jake for Christmas last year; how had they gotten that?. Jimmy nearly jumped in fright when there was a response from the phone.

"_New Bark Laboratory, Professor Elm speaking."_

"Professor! It's me, Jimmy!" said trainer replied.

"_Jimmy? It's been a long time, I was just about to try and contact you. All your pokemon were teleported to my lab not half an hour ago… the logs indicate you were in a large electrical current, what happened?" _Elm asked.

"You know your theory of pokemon-human metamorphosis? It's true," Jimmy replied.

"_A pokemon living in a human based environment evolving to better suit its new habitat will look more humanoid. But evolution of that scale would take thousands of years!" _Elm answered, his voice conveying his surprise.

"Think about genetic experimentation. A human with pokemon characteristics, such as the ability to control Fire, or a person with the wings of a Flying-type," Jimmy explained.

"_Incredible! Where did you meet this creature?" _Elm asked.

"That's the thing… me and my friends got separated and I need help finding them. I have Gary Oak with me to help me find them but this could end up being a worldwide search. Put out tracers for the following trainers: Ash Ketchum, May Maple, Jake Paterson, Angel Star and Mizu Star," Jimmy responded hurriedly. "We need to find these guys before they get kidnapped by Team Rocket or something worse!"

"_It's funny you should mention that Jimmy. There are rumours going around Johto that members of the Elite 4 are in league with Team Rocket. Worse still, Team Rocket has managed to set up a new base in Cianwood and have coastal defences to protect from attack. The Whirl Islands are no longer safe to get close to, Jasmine is on holiday in Sinnoh and finally… Vincent, has had an accident," _Elm replied, his voice weary.

"Vincent? What happened to him? Is Marina okay, do they need help?" Jimmy demanded, his worry rising.

"_Vincent was one of the people enlisted to try and get rid of the Team Rocket base in Cianwood. He got hit with something and… he's dying. We don't know what it is or how it's doing what it's doing, even the best Nurse Joy in Johto doesn't have a clue," _Elm answered. _"Marina is devastated, I think she needs you Jimmy. One last time… I've got to go now. Goodbye."_

Jimmy slammed the phone back into its cradle and clenched his fists in frustration. Vincent was one of his best friends and there was nothing he could do to help him. Still, Jimmy needed to get back to Johto somehow and try and put things right with his friends, and retrieve his pokemon. Jimmy whirled around and dashed outside to where Gary was awake and slowly trying to get up even with his sprained leg, which didn't seem to be that badly hurt, the strange machine seeming to be turned off. Jimmy walked up to him silently and offered a hand, which Gary silently accepted and allowed Jimmy to pull him to his feet. Once up Gary gave Jimmy his patented one-eyed stare that said, _'Tell me all you know.'_ Jimmy sighed and briefly outlined all of what had transpired inside the house and what he had concluded. Gary, when Jimmy was finished, seemed to pause for a moment as he thought hard. After a while he snapped his fingers together.

"I've got it!" he exclaimed.

With that, before Jimmy had a chance to ask what, Gary pulled out a mobile phone and attempted to dial a number. A look of annoyance flashed across Gary's face though and he snapped the flip-open phone in two with a growl. Jimmy looked at the remains as Gary dropped them on the ground. The casing was charred black on the inside and the screen had melted into plastic slag… Jimmy pulled out his pokegear again and was shocked to find the same results upon its shiny red casing, which he hadn't noticed previously. He dropped the now worthless device in disdain, he and Gary walking back into the house to access their phone once more. As Jimmy showed Gary the one he used Michelle and Stuart both came into what Jimmy assumed to be Angel's bedroom and addressed them.

"I hope you both know the danger we are all now in. Team Rocket is now aware of your presence with Angel and Mizu; they probably have photo records of you too. If you're going to start searching somewhere for your friends I'd suggest another region… such as Sinnoh, or Kanto. Johto though, is a no-go zone," Stuart declared.

"We're going to Johto first! It's my home and I won't let Team Rocket scumbags take my home from me… uh, no offence to you or anything," Jimmy exclaimed, adding the last part sheepishly.

Gary nodded in agreement and punched in a quick set of numbers. After a while he started speaking.

"Gramps? It's Gary… no I don't need a visit. Remember when I said I'd met some interesting people? What… you've got her? Keep her there then… no don't tell her we know… we'll know where to get her in any case… yes… to Johto, to find the others… Jake first… yes, he's the Ditto-morph… alright… yes, that sounds good… I'm in Hoenn… trace the phone line… right… bye Gramps," Gary muttered over the space of a few minutes.

"What was that?" Jimmy asked.

"Gramps found Rebekah. She's badly hurt and healing right now back in Pallet Town, Kanto Region. We'll leave her there for now, since we've found her. Now we find the rest and gather together… sound like a plan?" Gary explained.

"Right!" Jimmy exclaimed.

Stuart looked at the two boys with interest, now that he'd gotten an insight into the way their minds worked. Gary had thought ahead fast, knowing that travelling in a larger group would attract attention and most likely the eyes of Team Rocket as well. With them all scattered yet aware of each other's locations they would be able to better search for the rest of their friends. Michelle was also impressed with Gary's quick thinking, if not so impressed with Jimmy's motivation but at least they were working towards a common goal that would better the world, like all humans should.

"So… can you give us a lift?" Gary asked eventually.

"We were planning on leaving for a while anyway… go off the grid as it were. If you want to go to Johto then we'll take you, there's a city not far from here with a sailor by the name of Mr Briney living by the beach. He runs a new power boat which can travel all the way to the Johto Region in a matter of hours. However we will need time to prepare before we go… this house is probably not safe to return to for a long time. We'll leave for Johto within the next ten days while we get supplies from Petalburg City. If you're with us, then let's go," Michelle replied warmly.

Gary and Jimmy shared a brief look before they both nodded, walking back out and into the rear of the jeep that the Star Scientists owned. Once buckled in they were surprised when Michelle got into the driver's seat. Michelle gave them a playful look, winking, before she floored the accelerator, the Automatic Gearshift compensating for the lack of a clutch and the TCS stopping the tyres from spinning wildly. Gary and Jimmy were pressed hard against their seats as the jeep roared down the edge, which Gary had thought to be a cliff but was actually a steep slope, into a motorway at just over the speed limit. They shared another look; however this time… it was filled with terror.

* * *

_Day 9: Homecoming…_

Jimmy smiled as he took his first steps back into his own homeland of Johto, stepping onto the familiar pier of Olivine City. On the coast he could see the light house and even Jasmine's Gym nearby, which was temporarily closed. Behind Jimmy came Gary and Angel's parents, all rather disorientated after the extremely quick journey. Michelle and Stuart weren't kidding when they said that the ferry was fast. Jimmy almost completely ignored the as he took the time to reacquaint himself with his surroundings. Jimmy still remembered the time he tried fishing for Staryu's on this very pier he was standing upon. After a moment he set off quickly, with the other three in tow as they didn't know where to go.

"So where are we going first Jimmy?" Gary asked after they reached the edge of the city.

"I suppose we should try and reach New Bark Town and find out just what's going on here. Seems Team Rocket is stirring things up just over the River Silver here, over in Cianwood. We should also retrieve my pokemon; get a place to stay… maybe back at my mom's place. Finally we should see what we can do to locate our friends from here," Jimmy explained at a moment of thought.

"Sounds good to us. Easy to remember, well laid out… I remember reading about the Magnet Train heading all the way back to Kanto and having stops through most of Johto, which seems like the optimal mode of transport," Stuart chipped in.

"Yeah, unfortunately it doesn't have a station in New Bark Town since it's so small. We'll either have to go to Cherrygrove City or travel the faster way down the mountains from Blackthorn City to get to New Bark," Jimmy answered.

Gary opted to go to Cherrygrove however both Michelle and Stuart thought that the mountain path would be less obvious and Jimmy was forced to agree with them. Finding the Magnet Station was easy enough for Jimmy as he still knew most of the towns and cities of Johto like the back of his hand, however none of our heroes had a Magnet Pass as the one Jimmy once got from the Copycat had expired almost two years ago. Stuart and Michelle had the idea to buy a family ticket, claiming Jimmy and Gary to be their sons and so saved quite a bit of money on the fare for transport to Blackthorn City. The train was a spectacular piece of engineering Gary thought when he saw it hover into the station. Rows of powerful magnets kept the streamlined train on the track as it hovered about a metre off the ground, the platform being about a metre high as well. The train was shaped like an exceptionally long bullet, with a rounding front for punching, or drilling if you wanted, its way through the air. It was painted silver with a pair of red stripes running down each side and black tinted windows to stop people from looking in at the few private compartments. Once the train for Blackthorn arrived Jimmy, Gary and the parents boarded the train and sat in one of the private compartments so as to keep any conversation to themselves. As the four sat down they didn't notice a small device outside their window fly down and land on a perch on one of the pillars of the platform to watch them. It was like a spherical black webcam, with a spiralling fan-like propeller for flight. Four spindly legs emerged from within hidden compartments on it to let it land and scuttle closer, the lens inside focusing on them with infrared filtering. A hidden, yet powerful laser microphone allowed for audio to be captured as well as Michelle began the conversation.

"So how many of you are there in your… team?"

"I believe it was a total of ten at last count from the reports the Intelligence Division collected," Stuart offered.

"Old news, there are only eight of us now… If I remember rightly you're referring to when Gray, Mariko and Kerr were tagging along with us. However, all three of them left; knocking us down to a seven. Then Ash joined up to make eight and Brendan betrayed us, knocking us down to seven once more and finally Gary here joined up, making eight again in total. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for sure, but I think we have enough members on our team now… too many people would attract a lot of attention," Jimmy explained, as Gary wasn't around during those events.

"I see…" Stuart replied, taking notes for some reason. "I'm writing this down so that I can build up a profile on each of you for future reference… in case Angel invites you to stay some time."

"What do you mean by that?" Gary asked, confused.

Michelle and Stuart gave him an incredulous look, as if to say _'What on earth are you talking about?'_

"Angel and Mizu are coming home once this nonsense is resolved. We finally have a chance to be a family again, to make up for the six years Angel lost of her life. Mizu was already fifteen when Angel was put in that… Maturation Machine or whatever they call it," Michelle exclaimed emotionally. "We may need to move house but we have plenty of money set aside in some 'secret' accounts and there are plenty of other honest jobs we could take up."

The four of them just realized that the train had begun to move and quickly fastened the provided seat belts as the acceleration tended to have too much inertia, which caused unbuckled and unfastened passengers and luggage to come out of their seats or racks with great force. Once strapped in the train seemed to take this as the signal to begin travelling at terminal velocity, flying across the track at around 150mph. The scenery of Olivine City vanished to be replaced by rolling fields of grass with a Miltank farm in the distance, where Jimmy remembered helping a sick Miltank get better with a bunch of simple Oran Berries.

"So as you were saying, you two just want to be one big happy family again? Won't Team Rocket hunt you down? We've learned from experience that these guys aren't the fools that Jessie and James were and they could very well either hurt you severely or even kill you," Gary asked worriedly. "Are you sure it's such a good idea?"

Both Stuart and Michelle appeared to be touched by Gary's concern but nodded resolutely in response. Gary sighed to himself and began thinking hard on whom for, and where they would begin looking. Jake seemed like a good choice as his many talents would be a great asset to their searching, plus he was a natural leader… he just didn't show it often, leaving it to Angel who was more of a commando than a strategist, which was what made them such a good team, plus he had told Professor Oak that they would be looking for Jake first as it was the first name to come to his head of his friends. Jake and Angel covered each other's weaknesses and only added to their strengths. Gary remembered a paper he wrote to the University of Pokemon Psychology about how different emotions can alter how powerful a pokemon can become, happier emotions bringing out strength and perseverance. While negative emotions such as anger and sadness either created incredible yet uncontrolled power or simply made the pokemon weaker. Jake and Angel together only made them stronger as a whole but now that everyone seemed to be alone, or at least separated by distance, they would become less than their true potential. As he was thinking, the Magnet Train made it way swiftly through the countryside, flying past Ecruteak City with barely a glance and pushing on towards the Ice Path, where Blackthorn City lay just behind. The intercom allowed the driver to inform the passengers that they would arrive at their destination in only ten minutes, making Gary surprised at just how fast this mode of transportation was.

Again no one was any the wiser of another vehicle following the Magnet Train. There was a sleek black jet with powerful, yet silent engines, following in the train's wake; far behind but keeping the distance easily. If someone were to look closely at the jet they would see two figures, in what appeared to be the cockpit, one with short silver hair, that fanned out like a bird's tail feathers around her neck and the other with long flowing blonde hair, sleek and straight. Inside the Magnet Train, Stuart suddenly got the feeling that not all was well and was on alert. He put a hand into one of the pockets on the inside of his lab coat and drew out a small palmtop computer. He flipped it open and began furiously typing into the holographic, desktop computer sized keyboard. After a few moments his face went pale and he glanced to Michelle silently, who then looked at Gary and Jimmy. The two teens were nonplussed, however they too knew that something was up and that it probably wasn't good.

"It looks like we were followed. Team Rocket has sent some of its best agents to either capture or kill us. Annie and Oakley… _Thank god Annie changed that ridiculous hairstyle_… they're about half a kilometre behind us and keeping a steady distance. If they catch up to us before we make it to the mountainside then we're finished. Jimmy, are there any shortcuts or places to evade them that you know of?" Stuart asked, completely seriously.

"Well… I suppose I could ask Clair to let us hide out in the Dragon's Den. It's a sacred shrine to Dragon pokemon where only the best or most worthy of trainers may tread without the Gym Leader's permission. She may see things our way though since we're in danger of being captured or killed… and she knows just how troublesome Team Rocket is," Jimmy replied.

"Not good enough. Rumours have spread of possible Pokemon League infiltration by Team Rocket and it would just be too risky to hope that this Clair isn't in on it and won't lead us into a trap," Michelle responded automatically.

Jimmy grew angry that these scientists would dare to accuse Clair, cousin of the League Champion Lance, a Pokemon G-man, to be allied with Team Rocket. It was like saying Ash gave Team Rocket his Pikachu willingly! If Jimmy could be certain of anyone's integrity as Gym Leader, it would be Clair. He did however, have a bad feeling about Jasmine. Her 'vacation' seemed to be at a very inconvenient time, just as Team Rocket took over Cianwood where she received a supply of Secret Potion to keep the Lighthouse Ampharos healthy as it was always getting ill, being allergic to the smell of seawater. Maybe he was just being paranoid but he couldn't shake the feeling that one of the Gym Leaders was compromised. As he thought that the Magnet Train began slowing down as it pulled into the Blackthorn City Station. The four heroes stood abruptly after releasing their safety belts, Stuart closing and pocketing the palmtop. Once they managed to exit the train they were off like a Mankey after a Nanab Berry. Jimmy, heeding Michelle's advice, took them to where the mountain road began, seeing as Blackthorn was more of a large town than a city, in very little time. At all time they kept a lookout for anyone remotely suspicious, or anyone who looked like Team Rocket agents. As they reached the gatehouse Stuart seemed to tense up as a sleek black car came into view, heading their way.

"It's them! In that black car," he nearly shouted. "We need to hurry!"

They rushed inside the gatehouse and straight through the opposite door, the guard inside catching the twenty pokedollar bill thrown at him as they passed. Through the doorway they stood on a steep precipice leading down the mountain side. About five metres down was another wide outcrop where they could safely land and so… they jumped. Jimmy and Stuart held onto Gary as his landing on his still stiff leg wouldn't do him any good, as they fell. They hit the ground hard and stumbled slightly but were back on their feet within seconds and leaping down to the next outcrop, slightly closer than the last. Michelle, unburdened with having to help Gary, was able to athletically jump down the slope, checking the path ahead. As they jumped again, Jimmy took a look back and spotted two figures just coming out of the gatehouse around sixty metres behind them. They had the head start, but would it be enough? Jimmy looked down again and saw the gatehouse to Cherrygrove down below, around and extra one hundred metres away. There were a total of nine further jumps, but each one further rattled his muscles and left him sore in the legs. Michelle had only three more jumps to go before she reached the bottom and seemed only lightly winded to Gary as he watched. Stuart also seemed to be alright with the physical exertion which surprised the Pokemon Researcher as it was his experience that scientists, used to being in labs all the time, were unused to exercise.

"Michelle was an Pokelympic-level gymnast before she went into science. She made sure I got plenty of exercise everyday as well… in more ways than one," Stuart explained to Gary's look of awe, with a bit of a laugh.

Gary reddened at the sexual innuendo but didn't let it bother him much as they jumped again. Now there were only four jumps left and Michelle was at the bottom of the slope, watching from the door of the gatehouse, cheering them on. Stuart looked behind this time and noticed that Annie and Oakley were much closer than last time. They were only around twenty metres behind and gaining quickly, however Stuart was sure that they would make it to the gatehouse first. Gary jumped ahead, surprising Stuart and Jimmy, as he landed nimbly despite grimacing in pain as he jarred his leg muscles. Now free from holding onto him, both Jimmy and Stuart accelerated their descent and the added speed helped them make it down with extra time to spare. They reached the dull brown gatehouse and rushed inside, only to dash through the next set of doors, the guard inside ignoring them as he slept. Behind them Annie and Oakley burst the doors open and walked calmly into the gatehouse, approaching the opposite doors smugly, thinking their prey to be caught now. However when they stepped outside…

"Where'd they go Annie?" Oakley barked when she saw no one nearby.

"Don't ask me, I was following you!" Annie retorted, huffing slightly.

Oakley rolled her hazel eyes at Annie's antics and looked around. Left, right, behind… they were nowhere in sight. Suddenly Oakley felt a large weight falling on top of her and she collapsed to the ground. With her face to the ground she couldn't see but she heard Annie squeal and presumed that whatever had happened to her had happened to Annie as well. She could feel hands touching her wrists and guessed that their prey had lured them into a trap. There was a clicking sound and Oakley was annoyed to discover the familiar feeling of cold metal circling her wrists as a pair of handcuffs was attached to her. She was pulled off the ground after and finally got a look at who it was Giovanni had sent her and Oakley after. White lab coats… young boys with pokebelts… They were beaten by some punk trainers and a pair of geeks?!?!?

"What the fuck is this? When I break free of these you'll be sorry bitch!" Oakley screeched in Michelle face.

Michelle responded with a hammering punch straight in Oakley's face, crunching her perfectly straight nose. Oakley squealed in pain as Annie growled angrily at the treatment her partner was receiving.

"Who are you?" Annie asked bluntly, no small amount of venom laced in her words.

"You mean you were given no information on your targets, besides a physical description? Geez, Giovanni's slipping…" Stuart whistled.

"Anyway, I bet you're both wondering how we just snuck up on you?" asked Jimmy, feeling glad that they were restrained. "Look up."

They did so… Above them was the sun in the sky… with another one next to it. It took them around two seconds to figure out that the second sun was not actually a sun, but in fact a Solrock. The Solrock floated down and hovered close to Jimmy, the trainer patting the pokemon's stony surface. Michelle and Stuart also gave Solrock praising looks while Gary just smirked and continued to watch Annie and Oakley, in case they were thinking of breaking out. However both women were now on their knees facing him, leaning forward slightly and exposing their rather… ample cleavage. Gary looked away for a moment but realised that it may be a trick for them to get away and looked back. After a few moments Stuart and Michelle walked up to the two spies and crouched down to their level, Oakley glaring at them from across a broken and bleeding nose.

"Soooo… what do we do with you? Ok, first tell us what were your orders pertaining to us?" Stuart asked politely, yet commanding as he did so.

"Capture the scientists, kill the spare," Oakley replied thickly, her nose interfering with normal speech.

"Ah, so we're wanted alive. Oh and Annie, I love what you've done with your hair!" Michelle exclaimed.

Annie blushed slightly and couldn't help but grin… until Michelle grabbed it and pulled her slightly up from the ground with the fine golden strands. With a flash Michelle had a small penknife against Annie's throat, causing Oakley to gasp in shock. Annie was writhing slightly in pain from her hair being pulled constantly, the movement causing the small yet sharp blade to dig into her neck and draw a thin trail of blood. Gary and Jimmy were completely shock at Michelle's sudden transformation from a happy-go-lucky, semi-serious scientist to a cold, calculating killer.

"Ok Oakley, both you and Annie prance away like good little Girl Scouts, or Annie is going to get a headache," Michelle warned.

"What makes you think I care?" Oakley asked, her voice giving away no emotion.

Michelle dug the blade in a little deeper and Annie bean to cry quietly, tears falling down her face and onto her knees. Oakley stared at her and Jimmy, along with Gary, could see many emotions flying through her eyes as she watched helplessly, unable to make a decision. Finally, after a few more tense moments, Jimmy stepped forward and batted the penknife out of Michelle's hand, along with pushing Annie towards Oakley, the blonde collapsing against the other woman and sobbing uncontrollably. Michelle looked shocked at Jimmy actions but didn't argue when she saw the look he was giving her.

"I will not be the first person to say I like these women at all!" Jimmy declared forcefully. "But I will not let that sort of treatment befall anyone, whether they deserve it or not! It's just wrong!"

"Why…?"

Jimmy looked at Oakley in surprise, who was giving him a look of something akin to awe, gratitude and concern.

"Would you two really have killed us? Even on orders?" Jimmy asked.

Annie and Oakley shared a look and looked back at the two young teens, contemplating their answer. After a few seconds they simultaneously shook their heads. Jimmy grinned, knowing he'd forced them to admit that they weren't such bad guys after all. But still they were Team Rocket spies and they had to stop them from taking Michelle and Stuart. Gary, who had been silent up till now, snapped his fingers together as he came up with something that would not only allow for Annie and Oakley to leave, but for them to not bring Michelle and Stuart with them.

"Say they died!" he exclaimed suddenly.

Everyone looked at him in confusion and Gary decided that he would need an explanation… so he elaborated on his plan.

"If these two return to Team Rocket and say that you two died while being chased down the mountain… say we all fell off some high cliff or something… then we can go and so can they, problem solved. Team Rocket is off our backs for a while and these two don't get fired," he explained rapidly.

Annie and Oakley glanced at each other and easily switched their cuffed hands to their fronts, by skipping over their laced arms, then held their cuffs out expectantly. Michelle sighed and grabbed the key for Annie's cuffs, unlocking them with practised ease. Annie gave a smile that didn't quite reach her ears and as soon as Oakley was free she struck. With a hard blow she punched Michelle right in the face and Oakley responded with a kick to Stuart's groin, causing him to fall over on the ground, writhing in silent pain. Jimmy took a brief second to realise that the agents had tricked them and reacted quickly. He ducked under a roundhouse kick from Oakley and attempted to elbow her in the side of the knee, trying to break one of her legs. Oakley pushed away from him, skidding across the rough ground while Annie and Michelle began their fight. Michelle leapt at her foe with a snarl and began what Gary, who had dragged Stuart back from the fight, would describe to be an almost animalistic series of attacks. Her long, manicured nails were being slashed around like claws and her kicks were fast and wild, yet Gary noticed they had a pattern to them. Jimmy broke free of the strangle-hold Oakley had captured him in and elbowed her in her muscled abdomen, causing her to bend over with a gasp. After, Jimmy responded by sweeping his right leg up and round in a half-circle, before slamming it down on her back in a powerful axe kick that floored that unfortunate spy. Annie noticed this and was distracted long enough for Michelle to land a glancing blow, cutting her cheek with her nails. Annie growled angrily and leapt at her, as if trying to mimic her moves. Michelle backflipped and her toes caught Annie's chin, decking her temporarily. Jimmy grinned and gave Michelle the thumbs-up, before jumping as Oakley slid underneath him in a rugby tackle. Annie and Oakley then got up, side by side and stood back to back. Michelle boldly dashed forward at Annie, however the two spies locked arms and Oakley lifted Annie up off the ground so that she could give Michelle a mule-kick to the chest.

"Son of a…" Gary mumbled, as Michelle was boosted up till she flew right over them and crashed heavily into the dirt.

Jimmy pulled Michelle up with one hand as he panted for breath. Michelle looked worse for wear too, a large bruise forming over one eye and her right legs trembling violently. Annie and Oakley were also feeling battered and ready to give in. However Michelle suddenly seemed to get a second wind as she tried to jump Oakley, faster than before. Oakley merely dodged with a cartwheel as Annie jumped the opposite way. Michelle turned as she skidded along the ground on the balls of her feet. She then gave Annie and Oakley a small grin.

"There's another reason why Angel and Mizu are so special you know. My family's genetic code has a small irregularity that can cause heavy emotional stress to explode into a large rush of adrenaline and increased aggressiveness, almost like a berserker. My great-grandmother developed a martial arts style to compliment this when it was discovered. It's called the Kyouhon, which is Japanese for 'Running Wild'. My family has also had great interest in foreign languages and Japanese is our favorite, so get ready for me to kick your asses all the way back to Altomare!" Michelle declared confidently, knowing of one of their last missions.

"Bring it geek! You just got some lucky shots!" Annie yelled back, blood running down her cheek.

Michelle seemed to focus slightly before her eyes went unfocused and her expression turned to one of anger. With a snarl she leapt forward, running low to the ground… almost on all fours. Oakley, her target, got ready to intercept when Michelle suddenly dived to the side and punched Annie in the gut with both fists, the young woman spitting up blood as a result. Oakley scowled and ran at Michelle, who simply dived back and head butted Oakley in the chin, before giving a reversed roundhouse kick to her head. Annie straightened up with a cough but was knocked unconscious as Jimmy gave a chop to the back of her neck, after sneaking up on her while she was fixed on Michelle. Oakley saw her partner go down for the count and gave a cry of frustration. Michelle began a deadly dance she spun this way and that, punching, slapping and kicking at the overwhelmed Oakley. Eventually Oakley collapsed in a heap with lots of cuts, bruises and bleeding on her body. Michelle shouted in triumph before she calmed down and fell over backwards, too exhausted to remain conscious either. Finally, Gary came forward and bound Annie with her cuffs again and also found a pair for her ankles off Stuart, who was slowly getting up, still having difficulty moving.

"That was a low blow," he muttered darkly.

"Come on Mr. Star, we'll get these two tied up and take them with us for the authorities to pick… wait no, Team Rocket probably has agents in the Police Force. We'll keep them at Elm's lab and get some rest," Jimmy stated tiredly. "I can't wait to be home again…"

* * *

_Day 30: Return to Sender…_

Jimmy awoke with a start, sweat beading down his head as another nightmare of Team Rocket killing his friends and family had invaded his sleeping mind. He sighed and looked at his clock, noticing that it would only be in about an hour that the others would wake up as well. He got out of his familiar bed and got dressed quickly, not bothering with his cap or with brushing his unkempt hair. The last three weeks had been quite stressful for the young man. Vincent was in the clinic in town, not even needing a hospital his death was so assured. Some kind of radiation was interfering with all his organs normal functions, his heart missing several beats randomly, his lungs failing and his eyesight leaving him now and again. Needless to say, Vincent was terrified and had even asked the doctors to put him out of his misery but Jimmy had adamantly refused. He had yet to see Marina but Jimmy could already tell that their first meeting would be an awkward one, as Vincent had finally admitted to setting him up to split them apart. At first, Jimmy was furious with his ex-friend but seeing him in his current state made Jimmy feel bad; Vincent was already paying for his misdeed more than he should ever have had to.

"So you're awake then? How are you holding up Jim?" asked his mother, Madeline, who was pottering about the kitchen making breakfast.

"Smells good… I've been better though. I had another nightmare last night… any word from Marina?" Jimmy mumbled, stretching his tired muscles.

"Yes actually, she'll be back in town later today. She said on the phone that she and you needed to talk urgently, is there a probelm?" Madeline asked, concerned for her son.

"No… not that I know of…" Jimmy muttered.

As he said this Gary trudged into the room and simply stated:

"We have a problem."

Jimmy felt like throttling the teenage researcher but refrained from doing so, tempting as it was. Circumventing his annoyance, he turned to Gary with an expectant look and waited for him to explain why there was a problem at 7:30am and why he should care. Gary groaned to himself, and grabbed a slice of buttered toast that was now served on the kitchen table before devouring it and sighing in satisfaction. He then turned to Jimmy.

"They've escaped…" he stated simply.

Jimmy let out a strangled shout as his stress levels increased dramatically. Now the Team Rocket in all of Johto would be hunting them down! Stuart and Michelle trudged into the kitchen a few minutes later and bade everyone a sleepy good morning. The whole group of five gathered around the table and began a small discussion as they ate their breakfasts of bacon, eggs, toast and baked beans. Jimmy discussed with Stuart how Annie and Oakley had escaped and Michelle cut in, explaining for him.

"One of them had a metal file concealed in their boots and broke out of their cuffs. Once the pair of them were free it would have been simple for them to pick the lock and escape under the cover of darkness… but they forgot about the Professors security cameras and we learned from the tapes how they escaped… also some other, um, interesting details…" Michelle concluded with a slight blush.

Gary raised an eyebrow and Michelle leaned across the table to whisper in his ear. Gary went red as she finished and Jimmy gave them a slightly confused look until he got what they were implying… no wonder they were so close to one another. Jimmy had never given homosexuality much thought during his life, not being too bothered by the concept but the idea of those two… hot women making out in leather clothing made his blood boil. Jimmy shrugged it aside before he started getting mental imagery and focused one the fact that since they escaped, they would most likely tell Team Rocket that he, Gary and the Stars were in Johto. Jimmy grinned a little as he began thinking. _'This'll give me a chance to pay those bastards back for Vincent… My team also wants a piece of them… This is gonna be fun!'_

Hours later…

Jimmy blanched at how much Marina had changed over the time he hadn't seen her. Gone was the plain yet sporty white outfit and crazy hairstyle and in its place was this much darker, almost sullen girl. Marina's hair was straight and had no accessories in it and her clothes were all black. She wore a narrow long skirt with a plain long-sleeved blouse and wore a similar hat to her narrow rimmed white one, yet this too was black. Jimmy continued to stare from his position at the top of the stairs in his house while Marina, unaware of his presence, spoke briefly to his mother. Jimmy realized that Vincent's condition was affecting the girl in many negative ways and vowed to himself to help her lighten up again. Making his presence known, Jimmy came down the stairs loudly and greeted Marina brightly, yet subdued to stop her from thinking he didn't care.

"Hey there Mari," Jimmy said, calling her by her pet name he gave her years ago. "Long time, no see."

Marina gave him an appraising look before she smiled slightly. Jimmy internally gave a sigh of relief that his friend hadn't turned emo on him. He wouldn't be able to take it if Marina started playng 'the victim' (nothing against emo's here, they're kool people). A noise behind Jimmy indicated that Gary had arrived and he knew that it was almost time for them to get ready to go. After informing the local authorities of Jimmy's status as the Johto League champion, they were allowing him a shot at infiltrating Cianwood along with Gary to attempt to sabotage Team Rocket's coastal defenses.

"Jimmy... is this a new friend of yours?" Marina asked suddenly.

"Yeah, Marina meet Gary Oak. Gary, likewise..." Jimmy replied, grinning.

"Wait.. THE Gary Oak? This is him? I thought he'd be taller and better looking," Marina said quietly.

Gary fumed as Jimmy laughed at his expense and booted the boy in the back so he could get past him, as Jimmy was still blocking the stairwell. Jimmy stumbled forward and crashed into Marina, knocking them both to the floor. Marina blushed as Jimmy fell on top of her and Jimmy immediately got up again, red in the face. Before this upset Marina though, he instantly offered her his hand and pulled her to her feet as well, noting that she was much lighter than he last remebered, possibly due to not eating much.

"W-well... We'd best get going Gary," Jimmy muttered.

Marina looked at him.

"You're going away?"

Jimmy gave her a sympathetic glance, knowing she would probably be upset over him leaving again so soon after just seeing him.

"Yeah, me and Gary ("Gary and I" corrected his mother.) have some friends who need our help and we need to dispose of our local problem before he head out again. Gary and _I_ have a plan to get rid of them from Cianwood but we need the Olivine's local authorities' approval before we do anything drastic," Jimmy explained. "Since a large force was easily detected, Gary and I are going alone... a little raid party which is harder to detect. We then sabotage their power grid, shutting down the coastal defense grid and allow the League's big guns to come in and wipe them out."

Gary nodded in agreement, having come up with the plan itself. Marina gave the two a thoughtful look before tensing up slightly.

"I'm coming with you," she declared.

"No you're not," Jimmy replied bluntly.

Marina looked as though Jimmy had just slapped her before she scowled deeply, unsettling Gary at just how much anger this girl could put behind one look.

"Oh yes I am. I'm your friend and I'm not letting you go into danger alone. I want to get rid of Team Rocket as much as you. Finally if you don't like it, you can go to hell!" she answered venemously.

Jimmy looked taken aback and sigh silently, his eyes pleading with Marina's hard cold ones.

"I just don't want you to get hurt Mari... like Vincent..." he whispered.

Marina's eyes softened and she stepped closer to Jimmy, taking his hands her her own, smaller ones.

"He told you didn't he? About trying to separate us?... and succeeding," Marina asked him, her voice quiet and timid.

"Yeah..." Jimmy replied.

"Do you... do you think we can-?" Marina began.

"I don't know Mari... Du-During our time apart. I... I-I let another person get... too close to me," Jimmy cut her off.

Marina looked saddened by this but hid her disappointment very well.

"Still... maybe we. Maybe _we_ can have another chance," Jimmy continued.

This time, Marina's smile was real as she closed the small distance between her and Jimmy and kissed him.

* * *

_Day 101: Great Breakthrough!_

Jimmy gasped as a floodlght nearly illuminated him and Mantine, passing just millimetres ahead of him. Jimmy had expected the security to be tight, but not this tight. He, Gary and Marina had spent the last two months preparing for this night, studying the Cianwood defenses from afar. Gary had ruled out an aerial insertion with the Anti-Air batteries, ready to launch surface to air missles, protecting the beach and the cliffs behind Cianwood. Gary had also thought about the enemy having infrared, night vision and heat vision filters in their patrols and realised that the only way to get to the beach would be an underwater insertion to the far end of the beach, the southern most tip of Cianwood City. Jimmy appluaded Team Rocket's methods of defending their only foothold into Johto, by selecting the most defendable position. Suddenly there was a tiny burt of static from Jimmy's throat mic and he tapped it lightly.

"Yeah?" he whispered.

_"I'm nearing my objective. Distance from entry point?" _came Gary's whisper.

"About one hundred metres. Security is really tight here, but I've seen an opening," Jimmy replied.

_"Ten-four. Marina?" _Gary asked over the secure radio frequency.

_"I'm already in position. When Jimmy reaches the southern end of the beach, I sneak towards the hydroelectric power station ahead of me and enter through the roof. Shut this place down and we have ten minutes before the backup generators come online," _Marina answered, making Jimmy sigh with relief. _" Then Gary, near that docked ship, sinks it with the depth charge we were given to add to the confusion. Afterwards, you Jim, go to the backup generators and destroy them how you see fit. After that we sneak to the cliffs and set off the beacon and hide until our reinforcements arrive."_

"You know the plan so let's get it in action," Jimmy whispered before closing the channel.

Another searchlight passed him too closely to be very comfortable, however his midnight black jumpsuit and black facemask kept him well hidden in the utter darkness. It was very cloudy on that night, the moon hidden from view by the gathered and thick water vapour, hovering high in the sky like giant black wraiths, ominous and eerie. After a few minutes jimmy heard what sounded like a motor winding down and knew that Marina had completed her task. Jimmy immediately summoned his faithful Pupitar, nicknamed Coal. The pokemon, having already been told what was going on by Jimmy hours earlier, began to dig into the ground just beyond the reach of the searchlights. Jimmy then followed his pokemon partner down into the tunnel that was being dug with great ferocity.

"Good job Coal, we'll be there in no time... I hope nothing goes wrong now," Jimmy muttered quietly.

After a few minutes Jimmy could hear a rumbling sound, getting steadily louder as they approached what Jimmy believed to be the back-up power generator. With a quiet command to Coal, he order the pokemon to feel if there was anyone nearby using the vibrations in the ground. After a few seconds the pokemon moved from side to side as a 'no'. Jimmy grinned and punched upward with coal, bursting back the tiles in the small warehouse. Nearby was the power generator, a large cylindrical device with spinning components on the inside. Several extremely thick cables ran from one end of the machine which Jimmy assumed supplied the town with emergency power. The cables were too thick to pull out and extremely dangerous to try and cut due to the massive electrical current. One thousandth of a single amp could stop Jimmy's beating heart if his memory served him right. Jimmy picked up the whole tiles on the floor and placed them back over the entrance they made, hoping no one noticed the cracks in the incomplete ones. Afterwards, Jimmy rushed to the shadiest area he could and hid himself, blending into the darkness. In a few minutes Gary's depth charge would go off and in, according to his watch, 3 minutes the back-up power generator would come online.

"Damn, how do I shut this thing off?" Jimmy asked himself.

Then he noticed it. There was a large, beamed lever (you know, the things that require your hand to be set horizontally instead of vertically with a horizontal handle to grip) on the generator, which had 'POWER' printed just above it. Jimmy rushed back into the light and quickly pulled it down, before calling Coal over to him. After a Take Down, the panel with the handle was crushed in and to test, Jimmy tried to pull it back up. It squealed in protest and Jimmy accidentally snapped the lever off. Dropping it, he lifted up the tiles that they came in from and disappeared into the darkness that now enveloped the warehouse. As he crouch-ran back through the tunnel he could hear the sudden whirring and successive _whump_ of the cruisers powerful ship to ship turrets, meaning that they had something to shoot at. Jimmy sudden felt a fearful lurch in his stomach and hoped they hadn't found Gary or Marina. He surfaced back onto the edge of the southern beach and noticed that the spotlights were out, leaving everything to be illuminated by the starlight of the cloudless night. Jimmy observed the cruiser and wondered just where the hell Gary was with the depth charge. Just as that thought crossed his mind there was a great explosion and the ship keeled over to the side slightly as the powerful blast engulfed a part of its side facing the water. _'Good, Gary's done… I see him! Best get down there…'_ Jimmy thought to himself as he crept across the sand lightly to where his friend was swimming back to the beach.

"I did it!" Gary whispered loudly as he reached his friend.

"What about Marina, have you heard from her?" Jimmy asked worriedly.

"You mean this girl?" came a distinctly feminine voice.

Jimmy turned and blanched. This was not Marina… it was _her_.

* * *

_Day 249: Breaking of the Heart_

Rebekah was normally a cheerful, upbeat and energetic young woman even after her pokemon partners' untimely demise. She solemnly swore upon their souls to continue living life to the fullest she could, which was something they and she both wanted to do. After her team's death she was upset for a long while but with the motherly love of Deliah Ketchum she managed to get over it. With her betrayal from Harley only for his own gain she was left once more desolate and upset, sullen and broken. However after that she bounced back up with the support of her surrogate family, Tracey being like her older brother, and Professor Oak being like a kindly grandfather.

However... now she was pissed.

Not only had Jimmy not told her he still had feeling for a previous girlfriend, which could have forgiven, but said girl had been nothing but… _downright degrading_. This Marina, while they had been in Johto for the last… near enough five months, had taken every opportunity she had gotten to insult Rebekah for her _condition_ believing it to be unnatural and something to be appalled at. A few years ago, Rebekah would have agreed with her assessment but not she was a lot more self confident but Marina was slowly working her way through Rebekah's emotional amour and it would eventually break. Rebekah was now back in her familiar home, the only place she had been able to call as such, Pallet Town with Mrs. Ketchum. She was in the guest bedroom, reading a new book she had found at the library (in which she had read everything they had in stock) which was titled 'Moby Dick' by Herman Melville and it was proving to be a good read. She was at a particular passage which was very insightful for the young woman. _"_He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it._"_

"Wow, that's pretty intense…" she muttered before placing her bookmark in between the pages and closing the book with a snap. "Reminds me of how I feel about that purple haired slut."

Normally Rebekah wouldn't know the meaning of such language but having such words thrown at her venomously during her childhood she managed to get the gist of what these words meant and solidified their meaning by asking Deliah. Shaking away those haunting thoughts she carefully placed it on her bookcase before throwing herself onto the small bed with a flump, feeling rather aggravated with the whole situation she was in. That self-righteous bitch Marina was a pain in her side that just wouldn't go away, even though they were now regions apart. Rebekah stopped her train of thought as the air around her started to shimmer from the incredible heat she was beginning to produce as she got angrier. However Rebekah remembered something Deliah told her that always managed to make her smile. _"Ash always wanted a sister…" _she had said. Ash Ketchum… Rebekah admitted to herself that she didn't know the boy very well, but she now knew from what she had heard his mother say of him, that she wanted to consider him as her little brother. However, she would have to get to know him person to person as he was still almost a stranger to her, besides being a teammate in Angel's group. Rebekah smiled a little as she got up from her position on the bed and made her way downstairs, deciding to go for a walk while it was still early. She glanced at her watch and saw the bright numbers 4:13am on the LCD display. Rebekah always got up very early in the morning and stayed awake for around 19-20 hours a day, not requiring much sleep. Picking her own set of house keys from the kitchen worktop she exited silently through the front door and closed it behind her as quietly as she could. _'May I'll visit my friends in the fields behind the lab…' _Rebekah thought, having visited the captured pokemon that were held at Oak's Lab many times and made numerous friends… especially with Ash's pokemon that remained at the lab, along with his pokemon that were teleported there to safety when he got hit by Elektra's Lightning Teleportation technique. Rebekah remembered reading a book on the Legends of Pokemon and discovered that the pokemon Raikou could do the same thing. That made her relieved in a small way, to know that what she could do, others could do too… that she was not as different as everyone else. It gave her a stronger sense of belonging in the world. Another plus, now that Jimmy and Gary were finally back in Kanto they could continue their search for the rest of their friends. They were up four members: Rebekah, Jimmy, Gary and Jake. Jake had contacted them not too long ago, informing them that he had managed to locate Ash and May, who were together in the Hoenn Region, after leaving Sinnoh to look back in familiar territory. Gary had informed Rebekah that they were going to go back to Hoenn as well after contacting Angel's parents, whom Rebekah held much distrust with since they were once affiliated with Team Rocket.

"Makes me want to rip their heads off……. But I can't since I'd be orphaning two of my friends," Rebekah muttered to herself as she continued to walk down the twilit streets.

If Rebekah had learned one thing from her time in Kanto, it was patience. She still held her great love of running as fast and as far as she wanted, but Deliah had taught her the wonder of watching everything from a stand-still point of view. The wind rustling the grass and shaking leaves from a tree. The way flowers glistened in the morning sun after rain. The call of the Bird pokemon and busy buzzing of the Bug-types. All of it managed to make Rebekah simply stand still to enjoy it. However, it also reminded her of when she first re-met Jimmy.

_Flashback…_

"_You mean this girl?" Rebekah asked, dropping an unconscious Marina on the sand._

"_Rebekah?!?" Jimmy exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing here?"_

"_I got wind that you two were goofing off here and decided to come calling. Not only that but I had to save her scrawny ass from being shot at by these thugs here… by the way this region's pretty nice," Rebekah replied casually._

"_Y-Yeah. I guess," Jimmy replied, not meeting her eyes._

_Rebekah grimaced and immediately knew that something was wrong. Meanwhile, Marina was stirring in the sand, her eyes opening slowly as she tried to refocus from the concussion she received after being clubbed in the back of the head by a sneaky guard. The first thing she saw was sand… and a pair of hiking boots, attached to a pair of jeans with flame-design rimmed legs, attached to a toned abdomen shown off by a black long-sleeved belly top, also with flame patterns at the ends of the sleeves and large breasts on the torso, making Marina conclude that this was a woman. Finally, attached to this was the head of a girl… with a horn?_

"_Ahhhh! Demon!!!" marina yelped, throwing herself backwards, into Jimmy arms._

_Jimmy caught her and tried to calm her down as Rebekah flinched as though she had been slapped, hard. That word brought back too many painful memories and phantom pain appeared all over her body as the memories of injuries inflicted to her began to surface once more. However, Rebekah showed this only through a slight tremble and simply folded her arms across her chest. Jimmy finally managed to shut Marina up with his gentle words and Marina suddenly threw Rebekah what had to be one of the iciest looks she had ever seen._

"_What the hell are you supposed to be?" she asked._

"_My name is Rebekah Torche… and you are?" Rebekah replied, trying to be as polite as possible._

"_Marina. Just Marina… but you haven't answered my question. _What _are you?" she asked once more._

_Rebekah hadn't realized it at first but that question really stung. It was as though this Marina girl was questioning her existence, as though she was but a figment of Marina imagination from her concussion. Rebekah decided then to be as honest and blunt as possible._

"_I am what has come to be known as a Pokemorph. I am part human… and part pokemon. Part Rapidash in fact," she answered calmly._

"_I didn't know bestiality could have such… unwanted effects," Marina answered snidely._

_Rebekah, although shocked by this girl's contempt for her being, was beginning to see red and though the others couldn't see it yet, she knew she was standing on glass and not sand. This girl would DARE insult Rebekah's heritage! Granted, Rebekah didn't know much about her real parents but the obsidian bracelet on her right wrist served as a reminder to her that she had family… and this impetuous brat was not going to slander them in any way, shape or form._

"_I warn you now, Marina. Do not be attempting to anger me… you wouldn't like to see me angry," Rebekah warned, her voice colder than her fiery nature should allow._

"_Why? Are you gonna transform into a freak on me? Not that you need to, to start with." Marina retorted, a smirk on her face._

_Rebekah noticed that Jimmy was not doing anything to defend her… rather he was hanging his head to the ground… in shame? In disappointment? In anger? Rebekah didn't care but this girl had crossed an invisible line and Rebekah's powers had began to fluctuate, the glassing effect she was having spreading forwards. Rebekah was happy that her heat ability could only affect those in extreme close proximity could feel as she didn't transmit heat through ultraviolet radiation. Instead her molecules vibrated against each other at insanely high speeds that created an enormous amount of heat from her. This was the heat that was beginning to affect the air around her person. Marina just stood there, smirking arrogantly at her._

"_What's the matter? Did I hit a nerve? I'm sorry," she said suddenly, making Rebekah hesitate for moment. However that moment vanished as she continued. "I'm sorry a mutant like you actually has the privilege to experience emotions."_

_With that Rebekah snapped. An angry red aura began to form around her body and expand slowly, rippling the air around her erratically as she began to heat up faster than before. The sand around her actually melted rather than turn to glass, and Rebekah's feet left the ground as a small pool of slag formed under her and began to hollow out into a crater. Marina eyed her in what Rebekah smelled as fear, her nose becoming hyper-sensitive. Marina was now afraid of her and that made her happy in a sadistic sort of way._

"_Now I AM angry. And you, foolish child, will bear the brunt of my anger. You who have invoked the wrath… of REBEKAH TORCHE!!!" she yelled, her anger now clouding her judgment as she prepared to beat Marina to within an inch of her pathetic life._

"_ENOUGH!!!" Jimmy suddenly yelled._

"_W-What?" Rebekah stammered, surprised at his outburst._

"_Leave Marina alone Rebekah!" Jimmy answered, getting angry himself._

"_What do you mean? Why should I?" Rebekah shot back._

"_She scared enough as it is! She doesn't deserve this!" Jimmy shouted, making Gary wince at the amount of noise the two teens were now producing. Surely they would be discovered soon?_

"_WHAT!!!!!!" Rebekah thundered. "She doesn't DESERVE it? After what she has said to me, you say she doesn't deserve what's coming to her? You know there's nothing you can do to stop me!"_

_And then it happened. Rebekah pitched to the side as the blow came faster than she had known, least of all expected. She lay there on the sand, looking at Jimmy in something akin to horror. Jimmy simply glared at her, his hand still raised up from where he had slapped her face… quite hard as well as a normal slap wouldn't affect Rebekah much. Rebekah sat up slightly, her hand on her cheek as a reflex more than anything. Tears began to form in her eyes as Jimmy continued from where he left off._

"_If you do anything to hurt Marina… then you're just as bad as the people that have invaded this island, praying on those weaker than them! You'll be nothing but trash and you'll have betrayed my faith in you!" Jimmy declared forcefully._

_Rebekah now had tears openly flowing from her eyes yet she didn't sob, she didn't whimper, nor did her lips quiver. No, she just cried… that was until there was a crack and something invisible make sand fountain up just left of Rebekah's position. Jimmy turned to the damaged cruiser and saw many Rocket Grunts running around, pointing in their direction and shouting, some with high-powered rifles shooting at them. As the bullet fire increased Rebekah stood up at last, some shot impacting on where she had just been lying. She turned to the cruiser as well and slowly, without a word or sound, began to walk towards it. Jimmy felt he should stop Rebekah and apologize for what he said before she did something stupid but before he could react, she was gone in a flash of movement. She reappeared in the middle of the deck and was promptly surrounded by Grunts, leveling rifles at her. She made no move against them, simply stood there. One Grunt who seemed to be of higher rank than the others made a hurried call on his radio before pointing towards Rebekah with the cry of "Open Fire!"_

"_NO!" Jimmy cried._

_Immediately bullets rained down on Rebekah's position, who had made no move to escape. Dust and metal fragments were thrown into the air, shielding what was happening to her from view. The hail of fire continued for several seconds until there was a shout and the smoke was blasted away by Rebekah's powerful shockwave of energy. Her eyes had blanked out to solid white, which almost seemed to glow eerily in the night, her skin blackening until it was a shade similar to coal. Her fiery aura flickered wildly and any Grunt who got clipped by it was instantly set on fire and burned to ashes in seconds. Rebekah still stood there, unmoving against the horde of enemies who ceased their futile attack. That was… until one lobbed a frag grenade at her. Rebekah wouldn't been torn apart by the shrapnel had she not vanished from view. Jimmy, Gary and Marina saw nothing until, after a minute or so… the cruiser simply exploded, showering debris all over the water and beach as the fireball expanded. No one made a sound as footfalls were heard behind them. Gary was the first to look and saw Rebekah, unscathed in her unblemished Typhlosion fur made clothes (Typhlosions have special fur that when is introduced to friction can cause explosions… this is one of the only materials that can withstand Rebekah's power.), completely back to normal and looking at them all blankly, her face expressionless. She stopped when she reached within three meters of them and gave them each a single glance before saying._

"_Let's go. We're done here."_

_End Flashback…_

After that incident Rebekah hadn't spoken to Marina or Jimmy until she and Jimmy, plus Gary, were back in Kanto in response to Professor Oak's request. When they were back… home Rebekah liked to call it, she immediately blew up on Jimmy which resulted in their not even acknowledging each other. Finally, after several weeks… Rebekah managed to work up the courage to apologize however Jimmy blew up on her again and she learned that Jimmy had feelings for Marina stronger than his feelings for her, which were hinted at to be not entirely sincere. Needless to say… Rebekah was crushed. She didn't think she could look at Jimmy again the same way and took solace in Deliah's advice and comfort, as she had been divorced from her husband shortly after Ash's birth, which resulted in the boy growing up not knowing his father… only being told that he was a talented pokemon trainer, who cared deeply for his pokemon's well being. So she knew of what pain Rebekah was going through…

"Enough wallowing in the past! What's done is done and I'm not going to try and change it," Rebekah said to herself.

"Rebekah…….. is that… you?" came a voice interrupted by yawns.

Rebekah looked up and realized that she was standing under Tracey's window where he slept in the Lab. It appeared that she had woken him up with her loud mutterings and with a quick apology, she vanished in a blur of speed, leaving Tracey confused as to her less talkative behavior. Rebekah simply reappeared in one of the wooded sections of Oak's pokemon habitats and leapt up into the sturdiest tree she could find, resting on a strong branch, on leg lying flat out along it, one dangling over the edge and her back against the trunk. A gentle breeze washed through the area and Rebekah relaxed, allowing herself a slightly forced smile. At least there was one thing she could always count on and that was the comfort of nature. Things no longer seemed alien or different to her after taking a few months to recover from Marina's treatment of her, which opened many still raw wounds and left her vulnerable. Deliah's tender and loving care did wonders for her self-esteem and Rebekah heard from Professor Oak that Deliah was planning on adopting her, however since she had no official birth records he had to contact the Social Welfare Department of the town's council to have them created. Rebekah didn't know her own birthday but after Oak, or Sam as Rebekah sometimes called him, took a blood sample he determined that her birthday was the 17th of June. This made Rebekah extremely happy, knowing more about her self and that she had a purpose for being now, no longer someone who didn't exist but was officially recorded as a citizen of Pallet Town and soon to have a legal family. It would only take a few more days for the forms to be processed and Rebekah would become Rebekah "Torche" Ketchum. Rebekah had decided to keep her self-given last name as her middle name to remind her of her past. This would also make Ash her step-brother and the idea alone was enough to make her giddy, however recent events had dampened her mood significantly, still not able to shake off Marina's cutting words and Jimmy's anger at her. Again, shaking off her more depressing thoughts she wondered how Ash would take to having a new sister. Would he be happy? Would he be upset? Would he _accept _her? Rebekah didn't know but it made her itch with excitement thinking about it. Finally, after becoming relaxed Rebekah drifted off to sleep again, perched in her branch and awaiting her discovery and lecture about sleeping outside from her mother. Yes… life was wonderful.

* * *

_Day 472: Crunch Time…_

"Liza and Tate huh?" Mizu asked. "Oh yes, I remember them. The twin Gym Leaders of Mossdeep City… but what can muppets like those do to help us?"

"Aha! They are the children of one of the lead astronauts in the newer Mossdeep Space Center who launch rockets and space shuttles to explore for Space pokemon… but the shuttles can't go too far from Earth so there's not been much luck," Ash replied knowingly. "And maybe we can sneak aboard a shuttle launch and commandeer it for the duration of our mission."

May rolled her eyes, but there was a small mischievous grin on her lips. Jimmy shrugged nonchalantly at the information. Gary blinked, not knowing Ash had friends in such _high_ places (bad joke…). Jake smiled, now knowing that soon he'd be reunited with Angel. Even though he could safely travel through space on his own, he held no illusions that he could successfully infiltrate such a heavily fortified facility without the rest of his friends… his team. Rebekah was reading a small book to the side, almost seeming to not have heard what was going on but if one were to look hard enough, they'd notice that her eyes were not moving… she wasn't actually reading. Mizu was… smiling… for once. It was a fanged and somewhat wild smile but she was smiling none the less at this good news. After Mizu's lonely and completely uneventful year and a half in the Orre Desert she had come back… different.

"Well it seems like Wally Wonder Boy here finally pulled through… can I come?" Mizu said, asking a pointless question.

Everyone sweatdropped at Mizu's question… what, did she think she was going to get left behind? Then Rebekah realized that she may think that after her isolation in the desert, where she hadn't the energy to fly overseas and food was too scarce plus because of Team Cipher, she couldn't go near populated areas as she now had a large bounty on her head after her forceful escape from their laboratories. Jake seemed to think on this too and simply nodded to Mizu who, in response, squealed and hugged him tightly. It was a strange sight to see… Mizu had lost a lot of her ability to function within normal human parameters, her manners long forgotten and social awkwardness was at its highest. She simply didn't know any better as she had forgotten what it was like to be around people. _'Sure a year and a half may not seem like such a long time, but when there's no living thing around you for miles… not even a stray Sandshrew you tend to go a little nuts,' _Jake rationalized to himself.

"So… when are we going?" Jimmy asked, sounding bored.

Rebekah glared at him hotly but he coolly kept his gaze off her. Gary just sighed silently at the pair and wished they'd get over it already… but that was impossible. Jimmy refused point blank to have anything more to do with the Rapidash-morph and Gary had heard him refer to her once or twice as a 'monster' while he was training outside. What Gary didn't know was that Rebekah had heard him too, and was broken even further. Her treatment over the last few months had made her a harsher, colder and more solitary individual. Jake had expressed his concern about her, knowing she would be mentally scarred after the incident in Vermillion City. Jake hadn't revealed however, that it was he in the magnetic crane, having turned it on just before Rebekah reached it. He also didn't try and approach her afterwards simply because he knew she was in safe hands at that moment and was receiving what she desperately needed at that moment… love. Jake snapped out of his reverie like a zombie from the grave and shook his head slightly.

"Well it all depends on Ash here, he has the connections. So we're relying on you to get us there and finding out if we can get on the shuttle on more… legal grounds. I don't want to have to be hijacking a spacecraft…" Jake trailed off, looking Ash in the eyes.

Ash gave him a determined look back that made Jake think there was fire burning behind them. Ash was totally committed to the mission and he immediately got up to phone the psychic duo. Jake nodded to himself (he does that a lot I know) and decided to make dinner as it was now getting later in the evening. They had been talking for almost two hours, each one going over what they knew and had gathered over their time in separation. All that mizu had offered though was, "I don't like sand." Rebekah had agreed with her and Mizu had given her a dazzling smile in return, knowing the redhead had been sincere.

"I'll go and make dinner… what's everyone having?" Jake asked.

"I'd like some pasta," May said immediately.

Jake nodded, knowing the street-wise girl still had a thing for the carbohydrate rich food.

"I'll have anything good!!!" Ash shouted from the other room.

Jake immediately put Ash down for pasta like May.

"Can I get some cheese and beans on toast please?" Rebekah asked politely, though still sounding a little distant.

"Sure thing. Anyone else? Mizu?" Jake answered.

"Marmite… just the jar," she replied shortly.

Everyone in the room shuddered at her choice. To them, marmite was the sickest thing in the world that didn't deserve to be called food to be ingested… more like rat poison in a more handsome jar. Jake nodded anyway, not knowing whether to love the stuff or hate it.

"And I'll have some of that leftover pizza from last night if you don't mind. I'll heat it up myself," Jimmy added.

"Oh, I'll go with what Rebekah's having… never tried it before," Gary finished.

"And I'll have cereal I suppose…." Jake said, more to himself.

Jake wandered into the kitchen and clattered about getting all the ingredients for the meals he would be making. Jake had just recently discovered that after the one and a half years he hadn't aged at all during the check up at a trusted clinic. The doctor concluded that it was because of his cells' ability to flash clone themselves to make him into larger creatures when he metamorphed. Well… he had aged but it wasn't much. About seventeen hours in total according to his silicon dating. Jake surmised that he only truly aged when he was in a different form, such as a pokemon or an object but not when he was in his normal form. So with this new discovery he realized with a slight horror that he would live many more times longer than Angel or anyone else in his life. He estimated that if he wasn't killed through unnatural circumstances he could live to be over a thousand years old. He would see the third millennium in his natural life if he didn't transform more often than usual.

"I'll really miss my friends and family when they're gone… but I'll never forget them. They ARE my family, and I love them," Jake whispered to himself, a small tear running out of his eye.

"We love you too," a voice said behind him.

Jake whirled around and saw Mizu standing there, her tail hanging up at shoulder height, her large cats ears twitching as they detected subtle sounds that Jake could hear if he wanted to. However he envied Mizu and all the others for their NATURAL talents that he could only _copy_ like a thief. However Jake was more into what Mizu had just said… oh crap, did she know? Mizu simply nodded to him in understanding and Jake felt more tears well up in his eyes but he fought to keep them contained.

"It's alright Jake… we all know. I mean your doctor is also my physician as well, you expected him not to tell me since we _live_ together? I'm your family too, so what effects you effects me too. Besides it's not like your kids won't be as long-lived as you will. They'll probably live just as long as you, if not longer… anyways where's my marmite?" she said sweetly, added the last part seriously.

Jake had to fight hard not to laugh… Mizu was just hilarious in his opinion. Though he wouldn't stand such behaviour normally, Mizu made it seem funny to him and she genuinely didn't mean it most of the time but she was still getting used to being around people. Jake smiled warmly at his, he wished greatly to be, sister-in-law. Ash was a lucky young man… he had a real sibling now, just like he had wanted. It took him a while to get used to the idea and at first he hadn't believed Rebekah until she phoned his house and his mother confirmed it. Ash hadn't reacted until Rebekah had hung up but when she had he enveloped her in a bone crushing hug yelling about how he had a sister. May was slightly envious of Rebekah's attention but she understood… after all she had had Max to contend with. After a few weeks Ash and Rebekah became very close… they were nigh inseparable at the best of times as Ash liked to tell Rebekah a lot of things about him, sharing his secrets, his dreams, concerns and doubts. Rebekah, in turn would give him advice, comfort, or in some cases… a big hug that usually was followed up with by a pillow fight. Jake remembered the first time it happened when he got to his room to sleep only to find feathers everywhere and his pillows torn to shreds. _'Those two…' _he had thought.

_Three days later…_

'_Are going to get us killed!!!' _

The shuttle they were all buckled into was one generally used only to go to great altitude without actually leaving the atmosphere, to simulate what zero gravity was like for paying customers. However, ash had swayed Liza and Tate into letting him borrow it for a group of 'special' friends. Liza was sceptical until ash told them the truth about his friends and how them were badly treated and shunned by normal society. This had softened her psychic heart and she bullied her brother into agreeing as well. Now the seven of them were all strapped into comfy seats in the black craft. It was painted so as it was design to simulate space outside, to make the riders feel as though they were in outer space. Ash had thought it was perfect as they were trying to be stealthy and the paint was designed to absorb sunlight and not reflect it so that they were better hidden. Everyone was staring at the electronic display that held numbers, counting down.

10…

9…

8…

7…

6…

"I'm bored now!" Mizu shouted.

5…

4…

"We'll be there soon, now quit whining!" Gary yelled back.

3…

2…

1…

"Okay… BLASTOFF!!!" she yelled as loud as she could.

Everyone jumped in fright as the ship began its ascension into the heavens above. Their world shook like crazy as teeth chattered and eyes shut tight. The roaring in everyone's ears was almost too much to deal with, as their eardrums felt like they were going to explode. The only one almost unaffected was Mizu, who yawned loudly, though no one heard her and so she pouted at not being able to have any fun. After what seemed like hours the shaking stopped and the roaring dulled to a low hum. Everyone opened their eyes and they were all amazed at the sight before them.

Stars… so many stars.

It was breathtakingly beautiful to them all, even Jake who had seen this before though not in his human form. Not even the sight of the gargantuan space station in front of them, painted black with red R's everywhere could stop them from admiring the beauty of space… wait, what? Ash leaned into the controls more and began to slow the shuttle down so as not to be detected. The large fuel tank and booster rockets that had been attached to the underside of the craft had long ago expired and been cast off, like chains holding down an angel who wanted to reach the heavens. No one made a sound as Gary fingered the edge of the attaché case he had brought with them. Jake had expressed his concern that leaving such a tactical advantage to Team Rocket was foolish, and so they planned to destroy the station after letting the crew get away via escape pods dotted around the facility. Rebekah noticed many windows and wondered if they would see Angel and so eagerly took to watching. Jake however had unstrapped himself from his seat and almost got sent straight through the window when he forgot about the zero gravity. Everyone giggled quietly, feeling the need to be quiet even though it was physically impossible for sound to travel through a vacuum.

"So where do we dock… and besides won't a ship docking raise a few eyebrows?" May asked, voicing a valid concern.

"I'll get in secretly. I can survive the vacuum and infiltrate this place easily and I'll let you all dock when I clear a path to the nearest airlock… that one there!" Jake exclaimed, pointing at the closest dock.

Ash was glad about the camouflage they had in the shuttle, otherwise those unfriendly looking turrets would have peppered the ship full of holes. However they were small and looked more like for shooting at comets that could hit the station. Not a faster an more manageable shuttle. Jake gave everyone a two finger salute before leaving the main cabin and into the airlock nearby. With a hiss the oxygen atmosphere inside the cupboard like room was sucked out and Jake grinned at them before he opened the door. In a flash he was gone and they all looked out the window to see him stretching an arm out grab onto the hull of what appeared to be living quarters, the windows being curtained for some odd reason. Jake clanged onto the station, even though everyone in the shuttle didn't hear it. He sunk into the metal as he phased his body through the gaps in the molecules. However this trick could only be done a few times as cell division placed a great strain on Jake's body until he reverted to his true form again. Then he was gone and everyone had nothing to do but wait for him to complete the primary objective and let them aboard. After almost half an hour Jimmy was getting worried, it shouldn't be taking this long.

"Hey guys it's been long enough. We should just dock and fight our way in, Jake might be in trouble," he stated.

"I hate to admit it but the idiot's right for once. We need to get moving, this zero-g is making me nauseous," Rebekah replied.

Ash and everyone else nodded and the Aura manipulating boy used the controls carefully to slowly dock with the station. As soon as the pressure seal hissed there was a loud banging on the airlock door. Everyone gulped as they began to get ready to fight. Rebekah was the brave one who decided to open the door and was shocked at what she saw… a mountain of a person in front of her, shadowed by the bright light behind him/her. Whoever this person was they didn't appear to be Jake or Angel and so she naturally assumed it to be an enemy and prepared to deck the person there and then… until they spoke.

"Is that you Rebekah?"

* * *

**Oh My God am I ever so sorry! I have had the biggest writing block you can imagine and so I have made a decision. Mizu's chapter will not appear… there's been enough said about it to know exactly what happened with her. And as for Jake? His chapter will primarily be about the rescue and Angel, Sabre and himself and what happened while on the space station. So the chapter after next will be BACK ON EARTH! With the whole cast! Once more I apologize for how late I've been on my chapter producing, I promise to make it up to you, even though I'm back at school now. Anyways I have to say, goodnight to you all… read, review, give me inspiration, and thanks if you are still a loyal reader. Dark Angel will never die! That's the promise of a lifetime!**


	32. Chapter 32: Lost in Space

**Dark Angel**

**Hiya guys, like I said and promised here's the new chappie! 3**

**Plus I decided to finally update my profile page; I did that remix of the Ninetails sprite into Kyuubi sprite myself! Yay! Mind I just re-coloured it… but isn't it good? Anyways this is Jake's chapter which is now actually about the rescue attempt since the history of the last year and a half can be added up together. In summary: Rebekah was left in Kanto, Jimmy and Gary saved Johto, Ash and May travelled Sinnoh, Jake searched for his team-mates on his own (if you really wanna know he appeared first in Johto originally) but moved on quickly… and finally, Mizu went nuts in the Orre Region desert!**

**Mizu: Bullshit! I'm not… wait, what did you call me again? Something to do with an anus… never mind.**

**Me: sigh

* * *

**

**Chapter 32: Lost in Space (lol)**

Jake hit the metallic floor with a dull thump and stood up slowly; taking in his surroundings quickly to insure that he wasn't surrounded by hostiles. He was inside a rather large, yet confusingly empty room. There was a messy single bed near a wall and a plastic basket full of clothes in a corner. There were two doors to his right, one looking rather old. Once his eyes returned to looking ahead he was shocked to see a glowing hand pointing a cyan glob of energy at his head. Only Angel could do that yet Jake noticed that this girl, who looked just like her, hadn't any such extensions like her wings and they would've been clearly visible in the baggy t-shirt she was wearing that barely reached the middle of her muscled thighs. The girl was looking at him in a strange way before, with a speed he didn't know Angel could possess, she leapt right on top of him, squeezing him in a bear hug.

"Jake! It's you! I missed you so much!" she screamed loudly.

"Shhhhh!!!!"

Jake looked over to the side and spotted the strangest thing he had seen since Kerr evolved into a Dazzleon-morph. It looked like a Pikachu… but was humanoid in shape and EXTREMELY large. This… _woman_ was huge! She stood at easily around two meters tall and was wide enough to appear to make her seem rather lean and not just gangly, like a lot of tall people were. She was covered with a short yellow fur all over, from her face; chin, forehead, furry rabbit-like ears and all. Her tail was easily as long as she was tall and swished around, possessing a dexterity that made Jake wonder if it could be considered an extra hand or foot. Finally he noticed one more thing… she was naked! She was crouched next to the messed up bed, which made Jake assume that he had just woken her up, yet he wondered how he hadn't seen her before. Her obsidian black eyes darted around the room rapidly and nervously, as if looking for enemies that didn't yet exist. As she turned to the side Jake was shocked to see a small burn on her right bicep in the shape of an R, the fur and skin underneath blackened in Team Rocket's brand mark… a great mark of shame to him. However this pokemorph didn't notice his stare and continued to look about her, as if expecting to be assaulted by unseen beings. She then turned to look at him and Jake noticed that her very black eyes actually held a note of hazel in them… Just like ash's Pikachu had. _'Ooooooh shit…'_ Jake thought. _'Ash isn't going to like this at all.'_

"Quiet now. Baddies appear if we're to loud now," she stated in a whisper, her light velvet tones reverberating around the room.

Without sound she made her way over to a plastic basket and pulled out a set of clothes, consisting of a black tube top with shoulder straps and a lightning bolt on the front, a very large pair of black jeans, and a pair of black combat boots with steel toecaps. These clothes were brought out in double, along with a black leather trenchcoat and the other tube top having no straps or design. Jake coughed lightly and turned around, letting the girls change in peace. In twenty seconds there was a hand on his shoulder and Jake turned to greet both girls, fully dressed and looking pretty intimidating. Both girls looked ready for combat, and if that wasn't enough both of them reached under the single beds and brought out utility belts with several pouches and straps. With the Pikachu-morph's there was a sheath with a large knife and with the other's there was a wooden handle that seemed to emanate an odd power.

"So Jake, I assume that everyone else is here right?" the cyan haired girl asked; her voice light and soft as snow.

"So you really are Angel? I mean… wow, look at you!" Jake gushed, trying not to look at her well developed curves too much.

"Yep, now do we have an actual rescue plan or are we going to sit her and reminisce? Sorry for not being more sympathetic but I need out of this fucking place NOW!!!" Angel screamed the last part in half anger, half desperation.

Jake nodded mutely and moved to the first door he saw at that moment. He quickly pressed himself against the metallic wall next to the door frame and, with great stealth, quickly opened the door and went in, closing it behind him. Angel and the Pikachu girl simply stared, a shadow of a smile on their faces as they struggled not to laugh.

"You now think he knows he's in the clothes-giver?" the Pikachu morph asked, her grammar being terrible as always. Angel simply translated it into: _"What kind of moron would sneak into a cupboard?"_

"I dunno Sabre… I dunno," Angel replied, smiling in amusement.

Jake appeared a few seconds later, blushing in embarrassment at his mistake and decided to let the other two, Angel and… Sabre, was it, take the lead. Angel and Sabre went forward swiftly to the only other door and Sabre moved to open it. There was a crackling sound as she grabbed at the handle. Jake saw sparks of electricity playing across the back of her hand as she wrestled with the handle but she gave up and let it go, showing electricity playing across it.

"They shutted us in. We can't get out without making noises of attention," Sabre said simply.

Angel nodded briefly at her and Sabre grinned, Angel smiling a little in response to her enthusiasm. Jake stared in wonder as Sabre rapped her knuckles lightly on parts of the door… almost as if she was searching for a weak point. She finally found what she was looking for, right in the middle of the door and pulled a fist back. With a small shout and a thrust forward, the metal caved in and a door made of one foot thick metal caved in under Sabre's Herculean strength and was blown right off its frame and into the corridor beyond. The noise it made was tremendous but short-lived as it was silenced when it hit the wall and lay flat on the floor, revealing a slightly crushed wall behind it.

"Well that must've got their attention," Jake said brightly.

Without a word Angel and Sabre went into the corridor, back to back and facing either way, covering each other well even though Sabre was much taller than Angel's impressive height. Jake frowned and transformed into a small Ninjask and followed them through the air, not a sound coming from his rapidly beating wings. His Compound Eyes rendered the darkness almost as if it was daytime inside this fortress of metal. Everything seemed to be made of some sort of metal; the floors, walls and ceiling were all shiny and metallic. Sabre and Angel then looked to Jake who spoke, despite being in another form which couldn't normally speak English.

"_We need to get to the docking bay closest to here. It should only be a few hundred meters away__," _he told them in a strange, clicking voice that sounded insectoid. _"That's where the shuttle we came in will be. Everyone else is waiting for us to clear a path there… then I have a little surprise for this place…"_

Sabre nodded and led the way, disappearing from view after a few meters. Jake couldn't see her at all even though he could see clearly into shadows however he hadn't noticed the small air duct above his head, where Sabre had vanished into without a sound. This pokemorph's stealth skills were incredible to him. Sabre reappeared at the junction to another corridor and waved them over, motioning for them to be as quiet as possible. Jake and Angel rushed over, making slightly more noise than a Surskit on water, and Sabre pointed with her thumb past the corner. Angel looked around briefly, using a sheet of thin ice from her hand as a mirror, and her heart sank when she saw what was there. There were twelve Rocket Grunts heading towards them, obviously sent to check up on her and Sabre after the noise they had made only two minutes ago.

"How do we get them without causing more noise?" Angel whispered urgently.

The guards would be on them in about ten seconds at the pace they were travelling, and the three of our heroes were in plain sight. Sabre looked about and saw a door but it was within line of sight of the guards. She pointed it out and Jake formulated an idea. Using a Supersonic the ultrasounds travelling down the corridor at too high a frequency for the guards to hear, but the further it moved, the more it slowed down until they could hear an echo behind them. The guards all turned around to look and Jake, Angel and Sabre used this chance to sneak to the door and slip inside. When they looked around the room they had just entered they noticed that they were inside the communal showers leading towards the Illusion Training Room. The shower room was empty at least… naked guards were one thing that Sabre and Angel had seen enough of and were one thing that Jake didn't want to see at all. They rushed through this room quickly, trying not to slip on the wet tiled floor, which Jake was glad for as all the metal was beginning to annoy him. The room beyond was a grid of lines in a blank room, black walls with lines criss-crossing on the floor, walls and ceiling. As they entered the scenery around them shifted and Sabre realized that they had been discovered.

"We been pinged!" she exclaimed, using the naval term for _detected_.

Angel immediately understood and they all rushed to the exit in the sandy battle arena they found themselves in. Before they reached it however, a metal grate near them slid up, creaking and gratingly loud. It was too dark to see but they knew something was coming… that and something heavy could be heard moving in the dark shadows beyond. Angel tensed, knowing that a few of the other pokemorphs that were created or held here either didn't like them or merely obeyed Team Rocket… however there were a few of them that liked Angel and Sabre, Sabre being more popular for her spontaneous attitude. The incident with Kiara though, made tears start forming in Angel's eyes but she sucked them back in and put up a wall around her emotions. Still, Sabre had been crushed by what happened…

_Flashback…_

_Sabre met Angel's fist with her forearm and pushed it down to the floor, causing Angel to overbalance and begin to fall. A swift knee to the chin, however, brought her back to her feet and right off the ground. Angel landed on her back several metres away, panting for breath with a bruise forming on her lower jaw. Sabre looked apologetic as she slid back into her Interceptor stance, ready to counter and counter-attack. Angel, having had enough, decided that she would have to improvise to beat the juggernaut that was her friend._

"_Oooww," Angel whined, clutching her jaw with one hand._

_Sabre began to worry slightly and made her way over to Angel, hoping she hadn't broken her jaw again._

"_Are you okay? I tell guardians that pitting you versus me in sparring is not being a smart idea. They be not good listeners," she explained quickly, standing over Angel._

_That was when Angel attacked. She put her hands over her shoulders, flat against the floor and pushed up, giving Sabre a double kick to her own jaw. Sabre, weighing all of 200kg didn't leave the ground but she did stumble back, slightly dazed. Angel, now standing on her hands, initiated a spinning handlebar kick to Sabre's midsection and spun back onto her feet, using her momentum to deliver a final palm strike to Sabre's solar-plexus. The gargantuan pokemorph fell on her ass but bounded back up in a second with a violent uppercut that Angel leaned back to avoid. Sabre let her uppercut form into a small jump and tried an axe kick while Angel was leaning back. Angel wouldn't have it and spun on her heel at 45 degrees to the side, avoiding the kick. Sabre's failed attack turned the fake stone under them to dust with its force and Angel sweatdropped. Sabre jumped back a few metres and readied herself once more, Angel doing the same. However, before they could restart their spar they heard a small scream come from outside the room. Sabre let out a pulse of electricity that shut down the illusion, granting them access to the door and they rushed through to see what was happening. A trio of Grunts were huddled around a quivering mass on the floor as they kicked and punched at what they could reach, small sobs coming from what appeared to be a small person._

"_Hey!"_

_The three guards turned to Sabre's shout and all three were ploughed aside by her tail swipe, revealing a small girl to her and Angel. The girl looked no older than 12 years old, was too thin to be healthy and wore shabby looking clothes. Beyond the blood and bruises from her injuries, Angel and Sabre noticed that she was also a pokemorph. She had light blonde hair and a pair of foxy looking ears poking out from under the thick, feral locks. Her hair was quite long and dirty, obviously not being washed in some time. The girls eyes were wide open and Angel saw a pair of red slitted eyes gazing at her fearfully. The final detail that clicked it all into place was the single tail that poked out from the large, shabby t-shirt that reached her bare knees._

"_P-Please don't… h-hurt me," she whispered, her voice hoarse and strained._

_Angel glanced to Sabre, who simply knelt down next to the shivering girl and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. The girl flinched violently and Angel swore that she saw Sabre's eyes flash red for a moment but dismissed it as a trick of the light. Sabre's expression was warm and cheerful, attempting to soothe the poor child but on the inside she was seething with black rage. She hoped those guards would be punished for their brutality but knew better than to hope. Instead she focused on the girl who had opened her eyes again when she realised that Sabre hadn't struck her._

"_It's alright. Won't let those baddy-men hurt you no more," Sabre whispered to her gently._

_Tears flooded the little girl's eyes as she managed to sit up and clutch herself onto Sabre's chest, breathing rapidly as she struggled and failed to hold back sobs. Angel felt incredible pity well up inside and turned away before she began to cry herself and instead noticed that the guards Sabre had knocked aside were getting up. One was pulling out the Remote again, pointing it at Sabre, his face bunched up in an angry expression. Sabre seemed to notice and stood up, lifting the child with her until she was being held like a baby on her shoulder. The button was pressed and Angel tensed… nothing happened. The red light on the end was blinking but Sabre was showing no signs of pain. Angel looked at her incredulously, noticing that all her muscles stood out from her fur and realised that she was simply holding it in. Sparks of electricity began jolting from her cheeks and the Remote in the Grunt's hand simply exploded, courtesy of a very light Thundershock. The Grunt cursed and cradled his burnt hand before stalking off with his two friends._

"_So what your name being?" Sabre asked after a moment._

"_I-I don't h-have o-one…" the girl seemed to look up at Sabre with hope and tentatively asked a question that nearly floored Sabre. "W-Will you be my m-mommy?"_

_Sabre felt tears well up in her eyes and couldn't understand why such a question would upset her. The girl noticed Sabre's tearing eyes and began to cry again, thinking she had upset Sabre. Sabre quickly dried her tears and smiled warmly down at the foxy girl in her arms, her very eyes seeming to glow happily._

"_I will be your mummy. And you shall be my Kiara," Sabre told her warmly._

_The two of them cuddled up close together and Sabre carried her back to their room, with Angel hot on her heels._

_A few weeks later…_

_Under Sabre's tutelage Kiara had grown in leaps and bounds in her skills. She was now well versed in mathematics and science, Angel had taught her English and literacy skills, as well as telling her not to copy Sabre's style of speaking as it was the quickest way to make English teachers commit suicide. Kiara herself seemed much happier and even Michael's visits didn't dampen her spirits when he was continually assessing her as weak. Sabre had learned through reading Kiara's only file that she was the first pokemorph developed by Team Rocket to be able to grow in strength through battle like a normal Pokemon "levels up". This had excited Sabre and she swiftly put Kiara into combat practice with her everyday to make her as strong as she could be. Kiara was only too happy to try and please Sabre and glowed with joy whenever Sabre praised her enthusiasm. However she still only had one tail, which was the indicator of her strength overall, according to her file. It was also at this time that the space station had Giovanni himself come to assess the progress they were making in creating his pokemorph army. Each pokemorph on the base was called to perform various scenarios under his watchful eyes, such as infiltration, or demolition or even just plain fighting against another pokemorph. Those who failed were "terminated" as the technicians put it. Sabre worried immensely for the longest time during this period as her turn came closer._

_  
"What if Kiara gets too hard a task? I have every faith in her but I don't want to lose her!" Sabre had declared to Angel, while pacing through their room._

"_She'll be fine, she's a tough kid. After all she's been looked after by you for almost a month now and she's become so much stronger. You're a great mother figure," Angel replied calmly._

_Sabre managed a weak smile until the door hissed open and a Grunt appeared._

"_Number 106, you're to come with me to the arena," he stated in a bored tone._

_Sabre nodded tensely and followed the short woman as she led her to a room that reminded her of the Pokemon Gym in Viridian City, like a large battle arena. Her eyes swept the room, spotting a man on a chair up on a balcony, which she assumed was Giovanni, given that she couldn't see him clearly. Down in the arena though, Sabre was shocked to see Kiara standing there, watching her with confusion evident. Sabre gave her a warm smile which Kiara returned before running up to her, giving her a hug. Sabre returned the gesture lightly, noting that Kiara was still very warm and comforting to hold._

"_Very well, now that the two subjects are here, begin the fight."_

_Sabre's ears twitched in alarm as she stepped back from Kiara._

"_You don't mean I have to fight Kiara?!" she yelled._

"_You will fight or you will fail and failure is not acceptable," Giovanni called from the shadows._

"_Kiara… I-I don't want to hurt you… but we have to fight…" Sabre muttered, fighting the tears back as she slid easily into a defensive stance._

_Kiara looked at her, bewildered._

"_Mummy, what's going on? I'm scared…" she whispered, entering a stance taught to her by Angel._

"_So am I… so am I," Sabre muttered before she rushed forward to test Kiara's defences._

_Kiara reacted as if on auto-pilot, ducking under her thrust and moving to counter with a leg-sweep, which Sabre jumped over. She flipped in midair, landing behind Kiara and lightly jumped on the spot, rolling so that she landed on her hands. Both feet kicked out to hit Kiara in the back but she back flipped and grabbed onto Sabre's now outstretched legs, pulling her with her into a forward slam into the ground. Sabre grunted in pain slightly but shook it off and rolled onto her feet again. Kiara held one hand out and Sabre was forced to dodge to the side as searing hot gouts of flame shot from her palm. Kiara followed Sabre with her flaming hand, attempting to inflict a Burn on her but Sabre was too fast. Meanwhile, Sabre realised that all she had to do was show off her abilities, to impress Giovanni. She leapt as far back as she could and her feet connected with the steel wall on the far side of the room. However, Sabre stayed there instead of sliding down. If anyone listened hard enough they would hear crackling under Sabre's feet as she used a magnetic current to magnetise her feet to the wall. Kiara watched Sabre warily now as Sabre suddenly vanished in a burst of speed. The air currents in the room weren't that strong but Kiara could tell where Sabre was an used her tail to balance on like a seat as she kicked straight up with both feet, into Sabre's stomach. Sabre grunted again but this time she grinned at the same time._

"_I got you," she declared as she gripped Kiara's ankles._

_She turned hard and used her momentum to pull Kiara from the ground and threw her at a wall, causing a small dent in the metal as Kiara collided with it rather hard. However Kiara was tougher than any normal person by far and merely hurt badly instead of being killed. Giovanni was clapping lightly and Sabre smiled a little, knowing he was becoming either impressed or amused. Sabre felt within herself for her stores of powerful electricity and her entire body lit up like a halogen light in the darkened room. A jolt of lightning scorched from her at the speed of light at Kiara, who's body erupted into flames to ward of the electrical energy. With a jump, both combatants were back to the middle of the arena._

"_Enough…"_

_Sabre glanced up at Giovanni._

"_I have seen enough. Number 106 you have performed adequately for your Heavy Combatant category. As such your training shall be increased and your regime shall place you into more scenarios suited to your skills. However, Number 149… Kiara," Giovanni used her name mockingly. "You are still weak. Such funding required to continue this project is a waste and as such, you have been failed."_

_Sabre's blood ran cold and a tear escaped from her left eye as Giovanni placed the death sentence on her surrogate daughter._

"_NO!! You will not harm Kiara!!!" Sabre screamed at him._

_A Grunt nearby tried to control Sabre's outburst with the Remote, however Sabre's anger overran her pain and she unleashed a transformer's worth of energy around the room as her powers were influenced by her raging emotions. Giovanni frowned at this as Sabre defied him so openly._

"_You will not touch a hair on her head. Kiara is my family and I love her! You hear me scumbag? LEAVE HER ALONE!!!" Sabre roared._

_Sabre's eyes were turning red as she directed all of the electricity flowing around her into a Thunder attack as wide as she was tall straight at Giovanni. The noise coming from the attack was incredible, but in the end it meant nothing as the electricity changed direction, flowing into some kind of crystal set up in the corner of the arena. The crystal was attached to a pair of electrodes (not the Pokemon) which sparked and flared with the electricity being fed to them. Sabre's attack ended and she looked at the crystal in shock as it fired her own attack back at her, twice as strong._

"_A-AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!" She screamed as the electricity was simply too much for her to absorbed._

_Kiara watched all this with tears in her eyes as Sabre tried to defend her._

"_Leave mummy alone you big bully!" she shouted at Giovanni, who simply smirked. "I'll show you weak!"_

_Sabre watched through one half-lidded eye as Kiara's eyes darkened in anger and a fiery aura rose up around her body. Her eyes glowed amber and the aura around her began to change shape into something like the silhouette of a Ninetails. Eight tails composed of her power formed around her one real tail and the air around her grow hot as the room trembled. The floor began cracking and the loose fragments lifted off the ground and whipped around Kiara like a tornado._

"_If you plan to kill me, Giovanni. Then I plan to take you down with me!" Kiara roared, her voice low and feral._

"_Kiara! What are you doing?!" Sabre called._

"_I didn't have a purpose until my mother came and gave me one. And now I'll use my power to fulfil my one goal… to see you BURN!!!"_

_Sabre fought off the electricity paralysing her to the floor and managed to crawl over to Kiara and grab her ankle, ignoring the searing pain in her palm._

"_Don't do it! Please!" she begged._

"_I'm sorry…" Kiara whispered._

_Sabre was unprepared for the kick that came at her from Kiara, a kick so strong that it sent her hurtling through the automatic doors, which barely opened in time. Sabre crashed into the opposite wall and went straight through it like tinfoil. The pain in her back was nothing compared to the pain in her heart as she got up off the rubble beneath her. She attempted to reach the door but was knocked off her feet as the station around her shook like an earthquake had caught it. The automatic doors ahead of her suddenly dented inwards and a shield of energy created a barrier over them, before Sabre watched with horror as the automatic door was ripped off by the vacuum of space, which she could see clearly beyond the doorframe. The room she had just been inside was gone and in its place was a void of atmosphere-less space. Kiara was gone…_

"_No… No. No, no, no, no, no, no, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!" Sabre cried in anguish as her heart broke._

_End Flashback…_

Sabre hadn't been the same since that incident, becoming withdrawn and sullen whenever she thought she was alone. However when Angel was with her she seemed the same as ever, however her mischievous grins seemed more forced than before. Angel knew that she had created a mask of her previous self to hide her hurt but Angel had known her friend far too long to be fooled by such a poor act. It had taken from then up til now to get Sabre out of her depression and into a state of contemplation, as she mourned the loss of her surrogate daughter. Angel snapped back to the present as she heard,

_Thud… Thud… Thud…_

Heavy footfalls were coming closer and a gravely breath was drawn in from the creature hidden under the eerie blanket of the darkness. Angel recognized it at once and grimaced, knowing that it was not a friendly person waiting behind that arch. Sabre seemed to recognise it as well and cracked her knuckles as she clenched her hands into fists, sparks erupting from her cheeks as she became excited for battle. Jake, on the other hand, was watching around them for any other signs that enemies were approaching besides the one from the arch.

"Go forwards. I'll meet up once I kick this thingy in," Sabre told the other two.

Jake nodded and moved to the exit while Angel remained a second longer to hug Sabre around the waist before dashing after Jake, illusionary sand being kicked up by her feet. Sabre drew in a deep breath… held it… and let it out again before she jumped back slightly to give room for whatever she was about to face. She watched in morbid curiosity as a large grey, rough looking foot appeared from the darkness. Followed was one of the largest pokemorphs Sabre had seen compared to herself. This thing had an extra head's worth of height on her and was an extra half of her as wide, making the guy look like a brick wall.

"Terrator…" Sabre said in acknowledgement.

"Specimen 106…" the thing answered, its voice as stony as its face.

The thing's skin was granite grey and seemed to be made of a rather hard leather or flexible stone. Large brown plating covered it's torso like armour, two plates for the chest and six smaller for the abdomen, a curved plate at the groin region and Sabre could only assume that the armour went round to its back. The pokemorph also had a bald head that looked slightly like a lizard's with narrowed red eyes and pointed teeth and a flat nose like a snake's. Its hands were three fingered with claws, just like the feet. This thing was obviously once a Golem… which was bad news for Sabre.

"Shit…" Sabre muttered.

"You are attempting to escape. You are not permitted and as such, I shall punish you," Terrator stated blankly, his voice cold and hard… just like his stare.

"You can kiss my furry yellow ass before I let you!" Sabre shouted before she launched her attack.

What Sabre didn't know was that behind the arena was a room, filled with scientists ready to monitor the fight about to ensue. Some were looking at the bio readings from Sabre, while some were typing furiously into computers, showing Terrator's figure and his movements that responded to their keystrokes. Outside this room Sabre dashed at high speed across the sand and thrust a straight punch at the Golem-morph, who didn't move. Her punch connected but there was only a loud bang to show that there was any effect, Terrator being completely unfazed. Said pokemorph lifted his right arm and backhanded Sabre, launching her across the stadium and into the opposite wall. Sabre grimaced and spat out a gob of blood before standing back up, wheezing slightly.

"O-Ok… time to g-get serious… stupid head!" she shouted.

Terrator simply waited and when Sabre came back into range they began a furiously fast and strong flurry of strikes at each other, while their opponent always seemed to be able to dodge at the last second. Sabre swung a punch and managed to catch Terrator across the face, grazing his tough skin. The Golem scowled… if it was even possible with his stony expression. Sabre ducked under a punch at her head and swept his legs out from under him, sending him crashing to the earthy floor. After this she jumped back as he hammered his fists into the sand, the force pushing him straight back up to his feet. Sabre jumped as rocks suddenly shot up out of the ground where she was standing. Stealth Rock was a powerful Rock-type move but she had a few of her own.

"_Howling Thunder God_!" Sabre yelled as she charged up a large amount of electricity.

The energy she gathered caused the illusionary sky to darken with thunder clouds, the air becoming charged with static. Sabre's red cheeks sparked and crackled with energy as she shot a bolt of lightning from her body straight into the sky. It disappeared into the clouds and Sabre's energy left her, all the stored up power now in the sky. Winds howled loudly and thunder roared around them as her technique began to complete itself. Suddenly, just as quick as it started, the skies cleared and Terrator raised a non-existent eyebrow.

"What that i-?" he began.

Had he been paying attention he would have noticed that his shadow was slightly bigger than normal as here was a single, very compact thunder cloud right above him. With a growing roar, a great burst of lightning shot from the darkened heavens as if God himself had decided to smite this pokemorph down. The power was immense and even Terrator was forced to one knee from the force behind the attack. It was over in a second and static washed around his leathery limbs and the electricity played around with his nerve endings. Sabre was smirking now and beckoned him to fight her once more, moving into a defensive fighting style. Terrator wasted no more time and jumped straight over the thirty metre distance to where Sabre was in a single bound. Sabre managed to roll out of the way as he created an Earthquake technique. The shockwave that emanated from it knocked Sabre flying and she crashed heavily into the sand a little off from her foe.

"Alright… that's it!" Sabre roared.

She pulled her knife from its sheath and took half a second to admire it. Sabre's new, full tang, battle knife was made to be more suited for combat with a finger guard, black wood handle accents, and a high quality leather sheath with belt loop was resting comfortably around her waist, the knife sliding into the sheath sideways so she could pull it out easier. Measuring in at 15 1/4 inches this knife meant business and nothing else. The solid 440 Stainless Steel had a mirror polish and really stood out, glittering in the bright sunlight, making everyone that could see it admire the amount of care that Sabre had put into the deadly weapon. The handle featured a finger guard… or hole extending out slightly from the handle, ensuring a tight grip and strong cut every time she swung it, with added precision and control. Sabre charged the battle knife with electricity and watched as the metallic particles of the sand become attracted to the magnetized blade. The blade lengthened and became more like a short sword in appearance, making Sabre almost squeal in excitement. She rushed at Terrator, swinging down for a diagonal slash. Terrator's thick arms were cut lightly with the blade but it was not enough to be considered a good wound. Sabre twirled around in a flowing dance of slashes, stabs and cuts, each movement flowing into the next, each attack followed with another. Sabre was using her own momentum to slowly increase the speed and power of her attacks as she flowed around like a liquid.

"Enough of this!" Terrator shouted in frustration.

He moved at insane speeds for someone so big and wrapped a hand right around Sabre's throat before lifting her from the ground with one arm and choking her hard, which in turn caused her to drop her knife, making it return to normal and lie in the sand, blade glinting brightly. Sabre gasped; the sound rasping from her throat as she suddenly had to fight for air. She used both her hands to hold onto Terrator's wrist to ease the pressure on her neck but try as she might, she couldn't pry the mighty digits off her throat. She kicked at him as hard as she could and even tried to electrocute him by expelling lightning from all over her body. Nothing worked… nearby, the scientists were getting into a frenzy at the information they were receiving. Sabre was still staying conscious and was able to do so for another three minutes, should her neck not be broken. Also her energy readings were a little low at the amount of energy as electricity she had expelled.

"So… this is… how it… ends? I won't… know freedom… I will… die… here?" Sabre choked.

"You have broken the rules and your punishment is termination…………… I'm sorry," Terrator said emotionlessly.

Sabre stared in surprise at the last words to leave the pokemorph's mouth.

"W-What?" she croaked.

"I wish I could be free too… my mind screams for release yet my body will not yield. My motor functions have been compromised and I cannot move under my own will," Terrator explained. "I wish to let you go but I cannot… forgive me."

Sabre felt her chest tighten up at his words but it had nothing to do with the lack of air. She felt angry, which was unusual as she was normally unflappable. Yet this was unacceptable! She couldn't stand idly by and watch as this poor person suffered so, even death was better than being a puppet. She tightened her grip on his hand and began to pull with all her might, her arms shaking with exertion but it still wasn't close to breaking his titanium grip. Sabre screamed loudly as his hand simply squeezed harder, making it now impossible for Sabre to force him into letting go.

"I will… kill… you… You will… be… free!" Sabre gasped, her eyes clenching shut as she strained her screaming muscles into trying to force his hand open.

"I-I cannot let go! You must do it! Kill me if you can!" Terrator shouted in a panic.

Sabre reached deep into the recesses of her mind, trying to find the strength to do what was needed. She thought hard and long, her mind working like lightning as it began slowing down, the oxygen supply to her bran being cut off. Then, with a flash of remembrance, Sabre remembered a cheesy line from an anime she liked that Angel had laughed at. _'If you have someone precious to you… when you protect them, you truly become strong…' _Sabre smiled lightly and opened her eyes. A bright white… almost blinding, flash of light burst forth from them as they began to glow brightly, blotting out her eyes actual features as they shone like light bulbs. She increased the pressure on the fingers holding her fast and with a building roar she began to slowly pry them apart. Terrator was shocked that she was actually doing it; her strength shouldn't be able to match his, let alone overcome it! The scientists watching in the observation room were going crazy, typing furiously to record the readings coming from Sabre at the moment… which was odd as they hadn't changed at all.

Sabre's voice came out like an echo as she spoke, "I made you a promise… I-I'm going… to KEEP IT!!!"

With a final push she wrenched Terrator's fingers open so hard that she broke them right off his hands, letting her fall to the floor, her adrenaline keeping her on her feet despite that fact hat she should have been on her knees, gasping for air. She reacted as soon as she touched the ground and lashed out with a roundhouse kick, bodily throwing Terrator into a wall, which crumbled under his great bulk. Sabre spared him no time and leapt into the air, thunderclouds forming above her head. With a cry, a lightning bolt struck her outstretched hand and coated it with lightning, making it spark and crackle. Her fur glowed golden as the lightning wrapped a weave of energy around the appendage like armour and Sabre prepared to deliver the final blow.

"_Thunder Palm_!" She cried as she descended upon her prey.

With a cry of sorrow she threw her open palm at Terrator's chest and watched with no satisfaction as the attack crumbled his chest armour and ripped through the skin underneath, frying his organs with electricity and causing his brain to sizzle. With a gasp, she wrenched her hand out of him and fell to her knees as he looked at her in shock. It was almost invisible but Sabre was sure she saw him smile and whisper to her, _"I'm free…"_ before his eyes dulled and his ragged breathing stopped.

"No… I, I actually did it… b-but he didn't need to die! Why!?! Why did I do this?!" Sabre screamed, tears streaming from her eyes, now back to their normal colour.

The scenery around her faded and Sabre noticed the observation window. Her eyes allowed her to see through the electronically blackened glass and she narrowed her eyes in anger when she saw scientists working diligently, some observing her through the glass, unaware she could see them and others staring in disappointment at Terrator's corpse. Anger coursed through Sabre's veins at this and something began to work its way into the back of her mind. As a new project of Team Rocket, Sabre had been subjected to various methods to make her docile and obedient but most of the programming she received her brain instantly rejected. All attempts after that were unsuccessful as her mind had shielded itself with electricity. Now however, some of her base aggression code was reactivating and the process that made a pokemon into a Shadow Pokemon began, closing her heart off to her emotions… leaving behind her fury and cold anger.

"_You __**Bastards!!!**__" _Sabre roared at the window.

She rocketed from her position on the ground and smashed her way through the safety glass, which had the strength to stop a Gyarados from breaking it. However, it was most definitely not Sabre-proof. It shattered and all the scientists looked at Sabre in shock. Not one took readings this time as a change began to make them tremble. Sabre's normally sun-kissed blonde fur had turned midnight black and the already black tips of her ears had gone blood red. Her electric sacs in her cheeks had also changed, making her cheeks turn a stormy grey colour. Finally, her eyes glowed blood red, which seemed to be promising pain and suffering with one heartless look.

"_You heartless scum. __You are the ones that did this to me, that did this to Terrator, which made Angel's life and my own, hell in space! I will tell you this once for you will not hear anything else after… __**I. AM. NO ONE'S. PUPPET!!!**__"_ She said darkly, shouting the last bit.

Her voice washed over the scientists with the strength of a small gale, making their lab coats flap rapidly as if in blustery weather. With that proclamation Sabre descended upon them like a demon from hell. She grabbed the nearest scientist's arm and simply tore it from his shoulder, making him scream like a little girl. She then silenced him effectively by thrusting the limb through the man's chest. He keeled over, now silent, and lay dead on the ground. The next scientist, a woman, was begging on her knees for Sabre to spare them and Sabre stooped down to her eye level.

"_If I have no purpose to existence… then why should you?" _she asked simply.

She then punched the woman in the face hard enough to snap her neck, leaving her dead but relatively un-mangled unlike the first. The rest of the science team were now clamouring to get out of the door and Sabre was becoming bored. Black electricity sparked along her fur as she raised one outstretched hand. Black lightning shot from her fingertips and with a flash of flame, the rest of them were turned to ash faster than you could say "Shocking". Sabre gave a grunt of satisfaction and promptly left the room, her evil expression and cold eyes returning to their normally warm colour as her fur began to turn blonde again, like the sun coming out from behind a storm cloud. She bent over in the Illusion room and picked up her beloved weapon; sliding the knife into her sheath before leaving through the door that Angel and Jake left through… she just hoped they were alright.

_Meanwhile…_

"We are so screwed," Jake muttered.

Angel nodded as they looked into the galley, or lunch hall as Angel called it. It was brimming with Grunts going about their business, not knowing that one escapee and one intruder were lurking behind the exit. On the other side of the lunch hall was the next door they had to go through and then it was a simple matter of getting past the several security checkpoints, the hangar, and another corridor before they were at the airlock. However it was much more easily said than done.

"How do we get past here? They'll know I shouldn't be out of my room, since it's technically the nightshift and my room is locked at night since security is less tight. So I can't just waltz past them, plus they always look at my a-…" Angel stopped herself before she said anything embarrassing to Jake, who was looking a little angrier than before.

"God, these people are sick. They get their jollies from a teenager? All of them must be over thirty!" Jake whispered loudly.

Angel said nothing but looked to the ground in shame. Jake sighed and put an arm around her shoulders, reassuring her with a light kiss to her cheek. Angel blushed at this as Jake had never really kissed her before, but then again they had still been young those years ago. Jake released her after a minute and seemed to think, his arms folding and his eyes closing as he went into deep thought. As he thought Angel noticed through the misty glass of the door that someone was approaching from the other side, which could only mean a guard.

"Jake, incoming!" she hissed.

Jake grabbed her hand and with a warning of "Don't move…" he seemed to faze out of existence. Angel suddenly felt very strange, as if she was standing there but not there, like she was in limbo between existing and fading into nothing. She watched through eyes that seemed to suck away most of the light as the door near them opened and the grunt strolled through, going straight past them and turning left at the junction. Angel's mind seemed to slow down until everything went back to normal and Jake reappeared in front of her.

"That was what a Faint Attack is like… it didn't hurt did it?" Jake asked, having not performed the move with another person before.

"I-I'm fine… that was just really weird. Anyways couldn't we just sneak past them all like that?" Angel asked.

"No, it wouldn't hold if we were moving," Jake replied in frustration.

He sighed and sent his gaze upwards and froze at what he saw. Air pipes? This is risky but it could work!

"Angel? Can you make a Mist go under the door? A really thick one?" Jake asked.

"Ok, but I don't know what it'll do but alarm them," Angel replied as she did what she was instructed.

Angel knelt on the floor and got onto her hands and knees, moving her head to the door. Seeing Angel in those clothes in that position made Jake blush, especially since she wasn't wearing a bra under her tube top, which showed off more cleavage than it ought to. Meanwhile, Angel moved her mouth to the crack between the bottom of the door and the floor and breathed out a thick fog, blowing it through the gap and into the room. Jake sensed that noone had noticed it yet and grinned.

"You need to work faster, it has to be big enough to veil us from their eyes," Jake said.

Angel didn't respond and instead redoubled her blowing of mist into the room. While she did this, Jake looked at the oxygen pipes and stretched an arm to one of them. Two of his fingers transformed into something like a wrench and he loosened the bolts on the pipe, causing gas to start leaking from the pipes, which interacted with Angel's cold presence, making even more mist, so thick that Jake couldn't see unless he filtered his eyes to thermal vision and even then it was limited due to the cold. However it seemed that they would be able to sneak through as a guard started panicking as he noticed the gas, thinking it was toxic. Jake slowly opened the door and saw that the mist cloud had shrouded the entire room, as Angel got up. With as much stealth as they could muster they crept through the shroud to the other side as the guards left through yet another exit to report a possible gas leak to their superiors. Once Angel and Jake made it through the door they immediately scanned the area. They were in the Main Tube as angel dubbed it, the Corridor that ran the length of the entire station. They needed to go left and travel 500 metres to the end where the Hangar was and then make a right turn to the airlock at the right side of it, which was relatively under guarded.

"Good we're all presented," spoke a voice behind them.

Angel and Jake nearly jumped out their skins as Sabre giggled behind them. Angel sighed at her antics and used another sliver of ice as a mirror to check the corridor on either side. Both were clear as far as she could see so all they needed to do was run the gauntlet. Sabre and Jake nodded when Angel told them this and they rushed out as fast as they could. Jake and Sabre ran ahead and Angel decided to try and catch up using a new technique. She jumped and used one hand to coat the floor ahead of her with ice, while the other ran across her boots and made blade of ice on them. She hit the ground and slid forward, nearly overbalancing until she managed to right herself and begin ice skating, her first hand continuing the stream of ice ahead of her. She accelerated quite a bit and managed to catch up to Jake and Sabre, both of whom were naturally much faster than her.

"Come on, hurry up!" Angel whined behind them.

Sabre grinned and was gone in a trail of yellow light as she rocketed ahead. However they were all making a lot of noise and a door ahead of them opened.

"Keep it down out t-," a Grunt began until he recognised them.

Before any of them could react he slammed his palm into a panel and the corridor was bathed in red light as a loud klaxon went off, alerting the station that there was a problem. The Grunt pulled a radio from his belt and began speaking into it on what Angel assumed was a channel that all the guards could hear. _'Shit, this isn't going to be easy now. Guards'll be crawling out of the metalwork to kill us now,' _Angel thought bitterly.

"Escape attempt in progress down the Main Corri-," the grunt choked on his last word as Sabre knocked him out while she passed with a chop to the neck.

Even with the Grunt silenced another door ahead of them opened, then another and another until there was about fifty guards ahead of them, some levelling guns and others simply barring the way.

"Sabre, use Charge!" Angel called, feeling a bit like a trainer again, since all her normal Pokemon had been confiscated from her before she was sent here two years ago. At least Professor Birch was taking care of her pair of Articuno's at his laboratory.

Sabre gave an affirmative shout and her body became enveloped in a shield of electricity that coiled around her limbs. Her speed increased dramatically and she bean to leave trails of displaced air behind her. She continued her run straight towards the guards, who immediately opened fire on her. The bullets simply swerved away from her magnetic shield and impacted on the walls to the side of her. Angel and Jake kept up as best they could while Sabre was Charging at the guards. She met them for a brief instant before the shield around her began to move them forcefully aside, causing her to clear a path through guards with broken noses and/or limbs as they were shoved into the walls. Angel made use of Mist again and shrouded their getaway so that recovering guards wouldn't be able to see them as their backs were turned. This chain continued down until Sabre nearly ran smack into a large vault-like door. She stopped in time and felt Angel and Jake run into her back, making her headbutt the door painfully. Sabre reeled back dizzily and shook her heads to clear the stars from her eyes.

"Ouch," all three of them muttered.

Angel looked behind her and groaned as laser-sights began to swim through the Mist she left behind. With both her hands she sealed them between the hangar door and a thick wall of ice, blocking off the guards.

"Umm… Angel… That kinda stopped off our supply of breathing too," Sabre told her worriedly.

"Then force the door open," Angel told her simply. "Your strength is monstrous, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"This door is several feet thick and slide to one side, being operating by several large gears that are locked in position by a Pawl when they aren't being opened electronically," Sabre responded, being completely serious. "It will be problematic for me to open it within the allotted time before our air runs out."

Angel knew she had screwed up now as Sabre never usually spoke properly unless she was being completely serious. Angel had once asked her why she spoke like a two-year-old and Sabre had simply replied, "It's fun…" which made Angel question her sanity at times. Sabre cracked her knuckles and found the best point where she could get a grip on the door, which was a large section of the framework which stuck out from the rest. Her feet became magnetised to the floor so that she had proper leverage and then she began to pull.

"Come Sabre, you can do it!" Angel told her. "We believe in you!"

Sabre seemed to be surprised at this statement.

"Y-You do?" She asked as her arms began to shake from the strain.

"We do," Jake replied. "We know you can do it."

Sabre gave them a small grin.

"Y-You're right… I can… I can… I CAN!!!" she yelled.

There was a great tearing sound as the Pawls holding the gears in position began to bend back on themselves and finally snapped, letting the gears freely spin. The hangar door opened with a loud crash and Sabre fell forward into the room as she became too tired to stay standing. Angel stepped up and pulled Sabre to her feet, letting her lean on her shoulder for support as she was too heavy to carry all the way to the airlock. Jake could see it now and grinned, knowing that they would be leaving imminently.

"Let's go, our friends are waiting in the shuttle," he said.

"Everyone's here?" Angel asked in surprise.

"Of course. We're here to rescue our friends… and the people we love," Jake added, referring to him and Angel.

Angel felt cold tears form in her eyes and smiled, as Sabre began to snore on her shoulder, drool trickling onto her coat. Angel noticed this and jostled Sabre awake again.

"This was my favourite coat!" Angel whined at her angrily.

"It's your only coat," Sabre replied sleepily as her energy began to come back.

The three of them wasted no more time in rushing to the airlock which Sabre opened, tossing the door behind them. Angel realised that once they were in, the hangar would depressurise, sucking out all the atmosphere and possibly people that followed them. She just hoped that her ice wall would hold out until they left. Sabre reached the inner airlock door, the door of the shuttle and this time opted to knock on it. The door banged loudly but held steadfast and opened after a few seconds. Sabre looked down at the person before her and recognised the flaming red and blonde hair, the amber/orange eyes and the horn emerging from pale white skin.

"Is that you Rebekah?" Sabre asked, having never used her name in English before.

"W-Who're you?!" The redhead exclaimed in surprise.

"Just another friend now can we come in? We're gong to have unwanted guests soon," Sabre replied, pushing past her to give room to Angel and Jake.

"Ash is the package ready to be delivered?" Jake asked as he stepped inside, going back into 'leader mode'.

"Ready for launch. But we still need a target," Ash replied before his hazel eyes were drawn to the largest presence in the room.

Sabre's ears perked up at the name Ash and her eyes immediately sought him out. He seemed much different than she remembered but she knew it was him because of his eyes. She could never forget the eyes of her best friend in the whole universe. Ash's eyes were filled with surprise and a small hint of recognition that Sabre didn't know whether to be pleased or worried about, since she didn't know what his reaction would be to her change from being his Pikachu.

Ash looked the enormous pokemorph over, trying to find something he recognised as his Pikachu which he had missed dearly over these past two years. This pokemorph was definitely part Pikachu… if not almost completely but was clearly much more humanoid. His eyes locked with hers and he nearly wept there and then as the eyes of his lifetime Pokemon partner stared back at him with hope. He unstrapped himself from his chair and got up, walking over to her, noticing that his head only reached her breasts, she was so tall. As such Ash looked up to he eyes and simply said one word.

"Pikachu?"

Sabre's eyes began to water as her trainer recognised her, with everyone looking at them. No one would be able to recall who moved first, one second they were looking each other in the eyes, the next moment they were locked in the biggest hug anyone had ever seen, both openly crying. Jake smiled slightly as he went and buckled into the co-pilot chair once more. After running a diagnostic on the shuttle controls he waited for everyone to get strapped in. Angel had already found a spare seat next to Mizu and they were also hugging, both sobbing hard, despite having their restraints locked in place. The only one, who didn't look too happy Jake saw, was May. She was staring at Sabre with something akin to jealousy or anger as she hugged Ash. Jake cleared his throat loudly and the last two sprang apart, strapping themselves into separate seats, Ash sitting down next to Jake in the pilot seat.

"We ready to go? The seal's locked again, we're airtight. Disengaging from the station," Ash stated automatically.

There was a loud clanking noise and everyone felt a wave of nausea wash over them as they left the artificial gravity field of the space station. The depressurisation of the hangar buffeted the shuttle to the side and things were rocky for a moment, however with them free, Ash manipulated the controls and the shuttle began to move forward, the thrusters working slowly so that they didn't crash into another part of the station as they were still in a tangle of pods and framework that supported the superstructure. Angel looked out into space and felt a sense of elation wash over her; she was going home at last!

"Ok, Angel, Sabre, where do we aim our missile?" Ash asked.

"Missile?" Angel asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, technically it's a rocket but anyway. It's a small non-nuclear missile that can destroy this station if we aim it at the right spot… where do we fire it?" Ash asked.

"We can't fire at this station! There are too many people on board!" Angel exclaimed in horror.

"People who no doubt made your lives hell," Jake reasoned.

"Well sure but some of them aren't bad people! There are even other people like us there!" Angel argued.

"Other pokemorphs?" Jake asked. "None the less, it's better this way for us and them!"

"I won't do it!" Angel declared stiffly.

"The Reactor Core…"

Angel blanched at Sabre and nearly screamed her head off.

"SABRE!!!" she yelled. "What the fuck do you think you're doing!!"

Sabre turned her eyes towards Angel and Angel nearly froze. Those weren't the eyes of her friend… they were the eyes of a broken woman.

"Those bastards took my daughter from me… I'm just returning the favour…" she whispered.

Angel fell silent at this and closed her eyes, issuing a prayer to the people that would lose their lives today.

"The Reactor Core is at the heart of the station, on the underside. There's a hemispherical formation… that's it. Fire your weapon there and it will cause a chain reaction that will destroy the station," Sabre told them, almost robotically.

Ash aimed the nose of the shuttle there and Jake pressed a few buttons on his side. On the outside of the shuttle, the clamps that would hold the shuttle to the booster rockets now held onto a different kind of rocket, which had been attached once they were waiting next the station. Ash fingered the button marked 'LAUNCH' which was normally used to ignite the boosters. In this case it would send their missile at the station and it would embed itself in the station's fragile hull, before a one minute countdown would start. Ash waited a few more seconds but movement on the station caught his eye. One of the stationary gun turrets was swivelling towards them and his decision became final. He pushed the button and once the missile had clear the shuttle he wheeled it around and activated the main engines. The thrusters at the back went to full power and the shuttle began to move off, but not before the gun turret had tem in its sight.

"We're about to come under fire!" Ash shouted to everyone at the back.

"Fuck!" Mizu yelled as her eyes began to glow.

The gun turret opened fire with a barrage of supersonic rounds much like a cannon mixed with a machine gun. The shells flew silently towards the helpless shuttle and bounced of some kind of protective barrier. Mizu began to sweat as she projected her Protect move around the entire shuttle. Ash powered the shuttle forward and after a few tense seconds the gun turret stopped. Angel looked outside the shuttle and saw the edge of the station, escape pods being launched from various bays around the station as the crew evacuated. She sighed in relief that some people would survive and began to count.

60…

Mizu was sweating profusely now as she released the Protect and fell into an exhausted sleep.

30…

Sabre's face was emotionless but her eyes conveyed her rage as she watched with a small satisfaction as the place of Kiara's death was about to go up in flames.

5…

4…

3…

2...

There was a brilliant flash as the missile exploded a second before Angel's calculations and from then everything went wrong. A red light blinked on at the cockpit and Ash cursed. He messed with the controls as suddenly the shuttle began to shake like a bead in a can. Everyone was glad of their restraints otherwise they could be killed as the shuttle shook furiously. May looked scared, Mizu was cursing in a language Angel didn't understand while still sleeping, Sabre was impassive, Jimmy had his eyes closed, Gary was watching everything through mismatched eyes, Jake was grim and Ash seemed to be determined.

"This shuttle wasn't designed to actually go into space, it might not be able to handle re-entry into the atmosphere," Jake told everyone over the roaring noise that began as Earth grew larger in the front window.

"You mean we're going to break apart?!" May yelped.

"Probably…" Jimmy muttered.

Angel groaned as the air in the shuttle began to heat up and fire began to lick at the front of the shuttle. Earth had completely filled the windscreen now and Angel could see the sky beside their brave shuttle begin to turn blue as they entered the atmosphere, thin clouds whipping past. Sabre seemed unfazed by the chaos around her and Angel began to worry about her friend.

"Sabre! Are you alright!?" Angel shouted over the noise.

Sabre made no response for the longest time until she spoke, however it wasn't a response.

"What is this craft made of?" she asked.

"Mostly titanium, some copper, iron and plastics!" Jake called back.

Sabre nodded and released her harness, making Angel's eyes widen. Sabre's feet sparked as they came into contact with the floor. She stood up and walked to the centre of the shuttle as the shaking became harder and harder as if Fate didn't want her to intervene. Sabre raised her arms to either side until she was standing in the crucifix position and everyone was watching her, even Ash who was also fighting with the controls to steady their descent. Sabre closed her eyes and seemed to concentrate. Thin trails of electricity came from her hands and reached either wall on her sides. As she did this, it was still unbearably hot for everyone besides Rebekah but the shaking seemed to die down a little.

"I'll be damned, she's holding the shuttle together!" Jimmy yelled.

"I can't hold this forever. Once I let go the shuttle will fall apart, a second later and we would be dead now had I not acted," Sabre stated grimly, however Angel could see the fire in her friend's eyes returning.

"Mizu! Are you alright to make a protective barrier around everyone?" Jake yelled.

"I can try!" Mizu replied.

"Leave me for last, the barrier will interrupt my flow of energy," Sabre warned her.

Everyone watched in fascination as Mizu's eyes and hands began to glow a miasma of colour, green bubbles of protective energy surrounding each person in the shuttle one by one. Gary was first, and then May, then Jimmy, then Jake, then Ash, then Angel, then Rebekah, and then Mizu herself. Just as she directed her energy to surround Sabre, Sabre let out a cry and her arms fell to her side. Mizu immediately concentrated on keeping all existing shields from failing. The whole world went white for a few seconds as the shuttle exploded around them and then they were falling… they had travelled quite far and were close enough to make out a few cities on the continent they were heading for, which appeared to be Kanto. Mizu looked around and spotted Sabre ahead of them, falling faster than they were and apparently unconscious. Angel was pounding her fists on her shield as she watched Sabre get further and further away from them. _'Stop it Angel, you're making it hard for me to concentrate!' _Mizu told her telepathically. _'Let me go after her!'_ Angel thought back. _'You can't catch her!' _Mizu thought back. _'Watch me!!'_

With that thought Angel began to fill her bubble with icy energy and Mizu watched with alarm as her concentration on that shield began to falter. Angel was blotted out by the cyan energy whirling around inside of the sphere and Miz knew she'd have to let it go or risk all the shields failing. She released the one that held Angel and was shocked as Angel rocketed towards Earth faster than she thought possible. A cone of cyan energy crowned Angel's head as she skydived straight for Sabre, who was getting closer. Angel could now make out the individual fields in the countryside and the beach on the coastline. With another burst of Icy Wind from the soles of her feet Angel accelerated and managed to reach Sabre as the buildings began to be distinguishable. Sabre chose this moment to wake up as Angel grabbed her wrists and let her wings unfold.

"What are you doing!!" Sabre howled over the rushing winds. "You'll be killed!!"

"Not if I stop you first!!" Angel shouted back.

"It's too late! We're only 300 metres from the ground! You're wings will tear themselves apart!" Sabre shouted.

"I don't care! I'm not letting my friend die this way!" Angel shouted as they cleared yet another 150 metres in those few seconds.

Sabre closed her eyes and Angel got ready to spread her wings out but was shocked when Sabre pulled her closer. With a muttered, "Sorry," Sabre threw Angel to the side as hard as she could just before she collided with the ground. Angel hit the ground at an angle and rolled over and over for around fifty metres before she came to a stop, hitting her back against a large tree and winding her badly. Sabre however, hit the ground at a speed of about 200 metres a second and the blast was incredible, huge chunks of earth coming away and dust being kicked up into the sky, with a resounding BOOM. Angel let out a dry sob as the rushing air had removed almost all the moisture from her eyes. After a minute Mizu and the others touched down much more gently than Angel or Sabre had and the shields collapsed, releasing everyone and they immediately rushed over to Angel.

"Are you okay?" Jake asked. "Angel, say something!"

"S-Sabre…" Angel whispered as her shoulders shook.

The dust was only just beginning to clear and Mizu blew the rest away with a flap of her mechanical wings, which Angel noticed where much different than before. All around they gathered on the lip of the crater and looked in. The crater was around 30 metres wide and 10 metres deep, with a huge amount of rubble filling it. Sabre was nowhere in sight and they all began to worry for her survival. Angel stood up shakily and immediately jumped in, clawing at the dirt to find her friend. Every hesitated only a moment before they joined in, scrabbling through the earth. It was Ash who uncovered Sabre's hand and called everyone over as they began to uncover the rest of her. Sabre looked pretty intact as far as injuries went but her fur seemed paler than normal and her normally rose red cheeks were lighter. Her face was peaceful however, which helped to ease some of angel's pain but she couldn't believe that Sabre had tossed away her own life to save hers like that. Had Sabre not thrown Angel to the side, Angel would have hit the ground right beside Sabre and Angel was sure she would not have survived such an impact.

"S-She saved me…" Angel hiccupped.

"Jesus… how far did she fall?" Mizu asked.

"Two kilometres easily," Jake replied.

This did nothing to cheer Angel up however she managed to gain a small amount of control over herself.

"Come on, l-let's pick her up. We can't j-just leave h-her here…" Angel said, whilst holding onto one of Sabre's hands tightly.

Needless to say, Angel was shocked when the hand's grip on her own tightened and Sabre's eyes fluttered open.

"That's right… you won't," she rasped.

"S-Sabre?? You survived?" Angel gasped.

"I'm not dead yet am I?" Sabre asked. "Because if this be dead place then I not liking it much, too boring."

Angel let out a tear-stained laugh and pulled Sabre to her feet. Sabre swayed and fell down again, having lost all of her strength using her magnetic ability to tap into the metal ore in the earth to create a negative effect, repelling her enough to slow her fall. Yet, no one but Sabre knew this and so they believed that she had simply survived hitting the ground back-first at over the speed of sound, without breaking her spine. After half an hour while the group simply waited, Sabre managed to get into a sitting position without help. Angel smiled warmly and enveloped sabre in a light, comforting cuddle that Sabre returned.

"Welcome home…" she whispered in Angel's ear.

* * *

**This chapter broke my heart as I feel terrible for putting my character's through so much… Now then I have several plots to use but maybe you should decide which one happens first? Ok, here's your choices:**

**A plot where Deoxys is the main villain trying to take over the Earth, but I won't say how.**

**A legend and a prophecy begin as Team Galaxy begin their conquest of Team Rocket and the search for Legendary items leads our team around the world before they have the greatest battle of all time against the perfect enemy.**

**The world descends into darkness as the incarnation of evil begins to take hold of the hearts of humans and Pokemon alike. How will angel and the rest fight this enemy, if they have to fight themselves at the same time?**

**Those are my 3 main ideas so far, so pick if you like which one you want to happen first and when I get a clear estimate of which is to happen first I'll begin that as the next chapter. Ok people, sorry for the long wait and I hope you'll keep spamming me with reviews of ideas and support.**

**Team Angel: Goodbye! **


	33. Chapter 33: Back to Our Roots

**Dark Angel**

**Hey guys! For some reason, I'm not sure why, all the reviews I've got haven't shown up in my email so I thought I was being ignored for a while, so I must apologize. Anyways, the voting is over and it's nearly a unanimous choice number 2! I won't go into details but this is one of my more brilliant plots and will take a lot of chapters to go through…**

**Anyways now that the whole team is back on Earth, together, there'll be a few changes. One, they're all over the age of 16 so expect much more mature situations if not explicit content. Like lewd or sexual humour (god some of it's funny) and of course… lemons themselves! Also know that the pairings are going to change slightly after a few chapters. This chapter will mostly be about introducing more of Sabre as a character and the weaker aspects of the team as a whole, since they seem a bit god-like right now (well the pokemorphs do… the others are just above average humans). Expect fluffiness, pain, sorrow, even tragedy and lots of comfort. Anyways, let the torment begin! Mwahahahahahahahaha!**

**Sabre: You're mean… :**

* * *

**Chapter 33: Back to Our Roots…**

There was a pregnant pause…

The air was thick with tension as slowly, Angel helped Sabre to her feet. Finally as they both stood up fully; they both drew in a deep breath and let out the loudest cheers any of the group had ever heard. Angel began a fumbling dance as her and Sabre went into an insane screaming of "We're home, we're home, we're home!" Slowly, Ash began to clap for the two of them, being joined in by Rebekah and Jake. Soon all of them we're cheering and clapping and whistling at their first major triumph over Team Rocket and the rescue of a dear friend and a new one.

"I-I almost can't believe it…" Angel finally mumbled to Sabre. "We did it…"

"Yes we did. Now… what should we do?" Sabre asked, a mischievous gleam in her obsidian orbs.

Angel closed her eyes and scratched at the back of her head in thought, while everyone else began talking animatedly at how well their mission went, and also at how amazing Sabre was to have fallen so far only to get back up with only major bruising and a slightly fractured spine. Angel furrowed her brow in thought as she tried to contemplate on what to do to celebrate. Currently she was now 17 years old, along with Jake, Ash, Gary, and Jimmy. May was 16 and Rebekah, Mizu and Sabre were 18 or over in Sabre's case. In human years, Sabre was nearing the age of 23 but she was still an adolescent in Pikachu years. Angel suddenly knew what to do…

"Let's go drinking!" she suddenly shouted.

Everyone stopped and stared at her in confusion. Jake was the most confused, since when did Angel drink alcohol? Then again, he had been absent of two, almost three, years of her life. He knew a lot less about her than he did before and he needed to get to know her well again so they could pick up their relationship where it left off. Sabre's eyes lit up in excitement as well as Mizu's for some reason. Ash shrugged in unison with Gary while May, Rebekah and Jimmy simply nodded. Sabre however, couldn't keep silent about it.

"In agreement I am!" Sabre exclaimed a second after Angel. "Come forth, let's go!"

Everyone sweatdropped at Sabre's atrocious, yet somehow cheerful, grammar before looking around to figure out just where they had landed. They were on the outskirts of a forest somewhere in Kanto and Ash was trying hard to recognise anything familiar. As his eyes wondered he spotted a dirt path some distance away with a sign next to it. He went over to check it out, being followed by everyone else as they began to notice it too. Ash, having the head start, reached it first and read aloud for everyone to hear.

"Viridian City, 1 mile. Gary was here, Ash is a loser…" he muttered.

"Oh yeah… I remember that," Gary said, chuckling lightly.

"Ash is not a loser!" May exclaimed indignantly.

Gary grinned nervously and decided not to comment further, however Sabre distracted his attention as she bent over the sign. There was some squeaking noises and when she moved away they noticed she had added to the sign. It now said, in a flowing handwriting, _"Welcome to Viridian City, 1 mile to go people! Gary was here, Ash is a loser but I drove around with 6 fangirls and never once went out with them, making me gay."_ Everyone else took one look and howled with laughter at the thought of Gary turning down all that pussy, making him turn red in embarrassment. He gave Sabre a mismatched glare which said 'This isn't over'. Mizu only lightly chuckled at the new sign and patted gary lightly on the shoulder as his head drooped down. Everyone, as if reading each other's thoughts, then took a step forward… and another… and another. Soon they were all walking away from the sign, in the opposite direction from Viridian City. Their destination? Pallet Town. Rebekah was itching to just run ahead home in ten seconds flat while Ash was also anxious to see his mother again. Angel and Jake were walking side by side in companionable silence as chatter started to form around the group. Jake was happy Angel was home again, with him, and was secretly pleased when Angel slipped her hand into his own, giving it a small squeeze. A metre to their left, Sabre and Mizu were talking to each other.

"I don't know, I intend… I like cheesecake but I still think ketchup is better," Sabre said animatedly, mixing up the word 'mean' with 'intend' which had near enough the same definition.

"I still think you're full of shit, but then again, we're entitled to our own opinions…" Mizu replied easily, unaware of the shocked look Angel was giving her.

"Hehe, funny person. Ok, how about cheesecake with ketchup on it?" Sabre asked.

Angel went green at this while Mizu actually thought about it.

"Meh, I think it could work but I'm not going to try it until you explain to me just what's so great about ketchup?" she responded after a few seconds. "I mean come on, it's just a condiment."

"It's red, it's tasty, it's nutritious… more needs be said?" Sabre answered. "Anyways it makes me strong!"

Sabre flexed her lean biceps to emphasize her point while May gave a snort. Instantly Sabre's eyes homed in on her and narrowed dangerously, as Sabre didn't like it when people mocked her or were being rude. May ignored her completely and tried to talk to Ash about his training with his new pokemon. When Sabre heard their topic of conversation a heavy weight settled on her shoulders. She wouldn't be battling with Ash ever again… they wouldn't share victories like they used to on the battlefield of a Stadium or a Gym, working together to make the other happy. When a comment about how Ash's new pokemon were stronger and better trained than any he'd been training before, Sabre's mind went blank as a deep fury settled in her heart. One step and she was in front of May, with her back turned. May stopped and glared at Sabre's back as her large presence was directly in her path.

"Would you move? You're in the way!" she exclaimed indignantly.

"You have something against me? A vendetta you have? Fear, perhaps? Or maybe… jealousy. Yes, I can smell it. The stench of envy lingers over you," Sabre began to speak, her tone even but colder than steel. "What are you afraid of? That I can take Ash from you because as his partner I was closer to him than you ever were?"

"Shut up!" May shouted angrily, her hands clenching into fists.

Ash and everyone else stopped and looked at May and Sabre, not sure of what was transpiring. Sabre finally turned to face May, her eyes closed and her ears twitching as she listened to May's heartbeat, listening to the nervousness that was interrupting the steady rhythm the organ should have had. May was afraid of something, Sabre was certain of it… but what? Sure, Sabre was more human now but that didn't mean Ash could ever like her in that way and though it pained Sabre to have her relationship with Ash broken as it now was, how May could be so ignorant, well, it really pissed her off.

"I am not normal. You know this to be true. I cannot have what you have because I was not born into it like you were. Also, do not underestimate my abilities or mock me whilst in my presence. Furthermore do not assume that I will take from you what I cannot have for myself, such assumptions are foolish. Besides I feel more protective of Ash… like a mo-," Sabre explained, before being cut off.

"There's no way you could ever be a mother!" May declared, her eyes narrowed with anger.

There was a sharp intake of breath as Angel flinched visibly at May's terrible mistake. The air around the group seemed to chill and tingle as small sparks of electricity began to form around the team, lazily jumping from nowhere and dissipating just as fast. Sabre's head was hung low, her long black hair shielding her eyes, hiding her hurt, pain, sorrow… and rage. Her large hands became clenched into fists as she turned around, her shoulders shaking, trying to control her temper before she hurt May with her inhuman strength. She could pluck May's arms from her body pulling grapes from a bunch. Then May made her second mistake…

"As if anyone would let you close enough… freak."

Sabre's eyes darkened, which was a sign of bad news as her eyes were already obsidian black naturally. She began to walk away, slowly and calmly it seemed as she stepped to the tree line that bordered the path they were on. She stood in front of a large oak tree, around fifteen metres tall and stayed there for a few seconds before… she put her arms around it in a tight embrace. Angel immediately knew what was going to happen and shouted for everyone to move back. Everyone did so, except May, who was too busy laughing to hear properly. In that instant, Sabre's hands clenched and dug straight into the tree's trunk like poking your fingers into jelly. With a small heave and a great cracking sound, Sabre ripped the tree right out of the ground and in a fluid movement, swung it anticlockwise, right into May. May was fortunate that she was hit with the leafy, fragile branches first as they greatly cushioned the impact but she was still sent hurtling to the side, winded and badly bruised, bouncing across the ground like a stone skipping the surface of a pond. Sabre then tossed the tree over her shoulder with one hand, back into the forest and glared at May, who was now cowering on the ground slightly.

"You know nothing about me! Hold your insolent tongue or next time I shall rip it from your throat!!" Sabre yelled, before she stormed down the path in the direction of Pallet Town.

May flinched at Sabre's shout and lay there as everyone began to move again, leaving her to sniff quietly over her injuries. However, she still managed to smile as Ash offered her his hand and she thankfully took it… only to be pulled roughly to her feet in his iron grip. Ash's eyes held anger, sadness and most hurtful of all… disappointment. May instantly felt sincerely sorry for what she had said to Sabre and decided that it would be best for her to apologize when she next had the chance. But inwardly she was still angry that Sabre had easily picked apart her insecurities and revealed them to all her friends. Suddenly May noticed that Ash had begun speaking, and that he still hadn't released her hand.

"What did Sabre do to deserve that treatment? Just what was going on between you… better yet, how could you say those awful things to her? And I quote: 'As if anyone would let you close enough'. Just what the fuck was that?" Ash said sharply.

"I-I'm sorry Ash. I'm going to apologize as soon as I can… I guess I let my a-anger get the better of me, no I'm sorry. I let my jealousy get the better of me. I thought that she would try and get closer to you than I am, because of who she was to you," May explained, never meeting Ash's eyes lest she see his deep disappointment.

May was expecting a lot of things but definitely not what came next. _Slap!!_ May's head jerked to the side from Ash's backhand to her cheek, even though it was most of a light tap, and she was so stunned she didn't react to it as she normally would've. What came after was also just as shocking to May; Ash pulled her close and kissed her. May's shock vanished and was replaced by a small amount of comfort from Ash's embrace, which helped her to see clearly what he was telling her without words. _'I'm so stupid. Of course Ash wouldn't leave me for any… one else. I disappointed him by doubting his loyalty…' _she thought miserably.

Ash pulled away and gave May a small, reassuring smile.

"Come on May, let's get going," he said, once more offering her his hand.

"Right with you… partner," May replied, a smile coming back to her own face.

_Later that day…_

"So then I was like, 'Oh he did not just do what I think he did!' and I ended up breaking his spine when I sent him into the nearest wall," Sabre exclaimed.

"Ha, ha, ha! I like you're style mysteriously large Pikachu. Maybe me and you should team up," Mizu replied in an all too cheerful voice, indicating at her intoxication.

"I'm not fat!!" Sabre retorted. "You're a cat!"

Both girls then fell onto each other over the table, laughing. Angel sighed at Sabre's lack of self-control after drinking several litres of strong alcohol. Angel had warned her about drinking too much and drawing attention to herself, which didn't really matter anymore as the entire bar had gone silent as soon as she stooped through the door, being too tall to walk through without banging her head. Now that Mizu was also drunk, it would be harder to hide their presence from the other patrons having a drink. Ash, Gary, Jake, herself, May and Jimmy were being ignored but everyone was eyeing Rebekah, Mizu and Sabre with a mix of curiosity, fear, disgust and anger. One man was even getting to his feet and Angel tried to focus but she too had celebrated too much and was finding it hard to focus. However her concern was for nothing as the man went to the bar and said he'd had too much to drink and was going home.

"Who wants to karaoke?!" Sabre suddenly called, while Mizu peacefully slept on her own arms at their table.

"What's a karaoke?" Rebekah asked.

"Oh, oh, it's when the song-machine emits a song and you sing along to it!" Sabre explained.

Rebekah's eyes brightened in understanding and she asked Sabre what to do. Sabre, naturally, replied that she'd go first to demonstrate and Angel groaned. She just wasn't in the mood today for Sabre's choice in music, as her foster-sister went over to the jukebox that even had a disk drive for a person's own music. Sabre always chose the fastest, happiest sounding songs she could and sang along to them whenever she could. Angel swore that if she ever heard "The Hamster Dance", by the Hampton Hamsters one more time, she would explode. Sabre stuck a finger on the machine and a jolt of electricity wrote a new song into the machine's memory as the current interacted with the hard drive creating and changing blocks of binary into a new file and began to play from the loudspeakers suddenly. Sabre then jumped up to the stage and grabbed the microphone stand, before she began to sing to the upbeat tune.

"_I take the rain on the roof of this empty house, that don't bother me._

_I take a few tears now and then and just let 'em out, am not afraid,_

_To cry, every once and while, even though going on, with you gone still upsets me!_

_There are days, every now and again, I pretend I'm okay, but that's not what gets me!_

_What hurts the most, was being so close, and having so much to say,_

_Watching you walk away!_

_Never knowing, what could have been, not seeing that love in you,_

_Is what I was trying to do!_

_It's hard to deal with the pain of losing you, everywhere I go._

_But I'm doing it._

_It's hard to force that smile when I see our old friends and I'm alone,_

_Still harder getting up, getting dressed, living with, this regret but I know,_

_If I could do it over!_

_I would trade, give away, all those words that I saved in my heart,_

_That I left unspoken!_

_What hurts the most, was being so close, and having so much to say,_

_Watching you walk away!_

_Never knowing, what could have been, not seeing that love in you,_

_Is what I was trying to do!_

_OOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooh! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEY Yeaaaaah!_

_I'm not afraid, _

_To cry, every once and while,_

_Even though going on, with you gone still upsets me!_

_There are days, every now and again, _

_I pretend I'm okay, but that's not what gets me!_

_What hurts the most, was being so close, and having so much to say,_

_Watching you walk away!_

_Never knowing, what could have been, not seeing that love in you,_

_Is what I was trying to do!_

_What hurts the most, was being soooo close! And having so much to say!_

_Watching you walk away!_

_Never knowing, what cooould have beeeeen!_

_Not seeing that love in you, is what I was trying to do!"_

Angel was utterly shocked at what Sabre had just sung, and she had sung beautifully at that. She had no idea that Sabre had ever listened to Cascada or that she liked her music, but she had to admit it was better than listening to "Best Friend" by Toybox again. Hearing it made Angel wonder if there were any hidden meanings in Sabre's song… but she had no time to ponder this as the entire bar erupted into applause. Everyone was on their feet, clapping and whistling as Sabre gave a 'peace' sign. It was strange how a single song could make people cheer, while mere minutes before they were ready to lynch someone. Sabre then left the stage despite shouts for an encore and made her way to an empty stool next to Angel.

"Nice song," Angel commented, staring straight ahead.

"Thanks," Sabre replied, copying her.

"Was it a tribute?" Angel asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Sabre answered, her voice growing sullen.

"Listen, I'm sor-," Angel began.

"I don't want pity…" Sabre interrupted; her voice was nothing but a whisper. "It was her choice and I couldn't stop her… I didn't try to… I wasn't fast enough…"

Sabre's eyes began to well up with large tears as memories of her short time with Kiara came flooding back and she broke down, burying her head in her folded arms, sobbing silently. Angel gave her a pat on her shoulder and watched as Rebekah nervously edged onto the stage. She took a second to find a song she knew and selected it, waiting for the intro to finish before beginning to sing. Unlike Sabre, who managed a beautiful imitation of the song, Rebekah's voice was _almost_ an exact replica, which could only be noticed by how she was slightly out of synch.

"_Sparkling angel I believe  
You were my savior in my time of need.  
Blinded by faith I couldn't hear  
All the whispers, the warnings so clear.  
I see the angels,  
I'll lead them to your door.  
There's no escape now,  
No mercy no more.  
No remorse cause I still remember_

The smile when you tore me apart.  
You took my heart,  
Deceived me right from the start.  
You showed me dreams,  
I wished they'd turn into real.  
You broke a promise and made me realize.  
It was all just a lie.

Rebekah's voice reverberated around the bar's large room, making glasses tremble on their tables; all the while she seemed to be lost in the music, unnoticing of the awe-struck gazes she was receiving. Her eyes closed, shielding her from the looks and allowed her to fall into the song, her voice now synching perfectly into the words as she let out all her bottled up feelings, causing quite a number of people within the crowd to cry at the beauty and emotion being displayed. Rebekah's arms were moving in time with the song, spread wide like wings; going up and down with the pitch of the song (she had placed the microphone back onto its stand).

Sparkling angel, I couldn't see  
Your dark intentions, your feelings for me.  
Fallen angel, tell me why?  
What is the reason, the thorn in your eye?  
I see the angels,  
I'll lead them to your door  
There's no escape now  
No mercy no more  
No remorse cause I still remember

The smile when you tore me apart  
You took my heart,  
Deceived me right from the start.  
You showed me dreams,  
I wished they'd turn into real.  
You broke a promise and made me realize.  
It was all just a lie.  
Could have been forever.  
Now we have reached the end.

At the word "end" her voice raised to a pitch high enough to rattle anything made of glass as she hit just the right note. Rebekah's eyes opened and homed in on Jimmy's, who was trying to make himself less noticeable, his expression quite guilty and partly angry as he knew she was singing about herself and him. Thankfully, none of the others were quite aware of what had happened but some knew there was tension between the two of them, especially Mizu.

This world may have failed you,  
It doesn't give the reason why.  
You could have chosen a different path in life.

The smile when you tore me apart.  
You took my heart,  
Deceived me right from the start.  
You showed me dreams,  
I wished they'd turn into real.  
You broke a promise and made me realize.  
It was all just a lie.  
Could have been forever.  
Now we have reached the eeeeeeeeeend."

This time, several pint glasses shattered as Rebekah raised her arms up high, before dropping into a low bow as the song finished. The audience went wild and Rebekah found herself blushing slightly, trying to fight her way back to her friends. She decided to sit down across from Ash and May, the latter of which was talking animatedly about the benefits of physical fitness. Ash seemed to be half-listening, half-boring a hole into Rebekah's eyes with curiosity. As soon as Rebekah sat down Ash motioned for May to be quiet and leaned forward in his seat.

"Is something wrong Rebekah?" he asked simply.

"Yeah… I-I'm fine," Rebekah replied, trying not to sound nervous as she realised Ash had noticed something.

"No you're not. What's wrong?" Ash insisted. "You kept looking at Jimmy… and you're crying!"

Rebekah immediately wiped her eyes and realised that she _had _been crying, without realising it. She was in big trouble now and so she gulped quietly, while trying to avoid Ash's piercing gaze but it was no use. It was like she was cornered despite the walls being far away from her. Ash was many things: bold, confident, loyal, loving, kind, smart and even slightly artistic, yet the one thing he would never be is nosy, unless it was to do with making one of his friends or family feel better. Deciding that lying to her brother was a betrayal of trust that couldn't be tolerated and to alleviate Ash's concern, she began telling Ash of what exactly had happened to her during their time apart.

_10 minutes later…_

"YOU BASTARD!!"

People jumped in their seats in fright as Ash suddenly overturned his table, sending a pair of pint glasses and a glass ashtray to the floor and into pieces. All eyes instantly went to the teen as he violently fought against Rebekah and May holding him back as he tried to get at Jimmy, who was looking at him with mild confusion and fear. Angel, having managed to calm Sabre down, looked over at the situation forming and assessed that they would have to leave before any more damage was caused. She stood up loudly, gathering her friends' attentions and beckoned them outside, leaving the bar quietly with dozens of eyes following them. As soon as everyone had left the bar and the door had closed behind them, Ash tried once more to get at Jimmy, who leapt back from his reach as a vicious right hook just missed his face.

"You dickhead! Let me at him, I'll teach him to fuck with my family!" Ash yelled furiously.

Angel stepped up and put a single hand on Ash's only flailing arm, causing it to stop as frost appeared on his sleeve. She was ticked off…

"What is all this about?" Angel demanded. "We were going to be kicked out if we hadn't already left."

"That ungrateful piece of shit is the reason why Rebekah's been so depressed! He broke her heart!!" Ash roared, renewing his struggling.

Jimmy's eyes narrowed at this and he took a step forward, but an arm from Jake blocked his way.

"Let Ash speak his mind. I want to know what this is about," Jake said quietly.

"You realise that until a few years ago, Rebekah had never known love or companionship until we accepted her, never having had friends or family? She got close to you, thinking you loved her and what did you do? You ditched her for some racist bimbo who clearly didn't trust you enough to have fallen for such a pathetic trick from your _best friend_!!" Ash declared; his voice now no longer shouting but still louder than necessary. "You treated her like she was simply there to make you feel good, didn't you?! You left her side in an instant for someone _normal_, you're worse than trash!"

Everyone turned to Jimmy, who defiantly met all their stares and made no rebuttal to Ash's claims.

"Is this true?" Angel asked, her voice colder than the ice she was known to create.

"… Yes," Jimmy admitted after a full minute of silence.

CRACK!!

Everyone flinched from the power behind that punch as Sabre gave Jimmy a good right hook. No one expected it to be Sabre to make the first move but all were impressed with the results. Jimmy staggered to the side, the blow being purposefully less than what Sabre could really dish out, lest she break his neck. As it was, the entire of the right side of his face started to bruise and his right hand clutched his head. Not once, however, did Jimmy let out a whimper of pain. Sabre readied to hit him again, but a hand stopped her fist and she glanced down. Rebekah was holding her hand in a grip of steel that surprised Sabre, not knowing the little girl had such strength. Rebekah looked up at Jimmy and at once he saw all the hurt, betrayal and sorrow coming from her very soul through those amber orbs. _'Oh god… I've seriously fucked up…'_ he thought miserably.

"I don't blame you…"

Jimmy looked up in shock at Rebekah's words.

"Think about it… if someone knew you were going out with me, what would they think? I'm nothing but a freak so it's best if you were together with a… a _normal_ person," Rebekah whispered, her voice choked with unshed tears.

"BULLSHIT!"

Rebekah jumped in fright at Mizu's sudden declaration and turned to the girl. Mizu's eyes were glowing dangerously with psychic energy and there seemed to be a thermal updraft underneath her, causing her hair to lift slightly, flowing in a non-existent wind. Mizu pointed at Rebekah with a purple fingernail and spoke with a great amount of force. Even dust and a few pebbles were beginning to rattle and rise off the ground around her as her emotions triggered a response in her Psychic powers.

"You are worth more than that! It matters not that you are like us," with his she raised an arm to indicate Angel, Sabre, Jake and herself. "All that matters is that you have feelings too, feelings that can be changed, be shared… be understood. And even if you never come into such a relationship, know that _we_ still love you."

Everyone was floored at Mizu's words, not expecting the now mentally unhinged girl to come out with something so deep, so heartfelt and so true. The tears Rebekah had refused to cry were now spilling from her eyes in waves as Angel, Mizu, Jake, Sabre, Ash and even May all came up to her and gave her a big group hug. _'This is my family…' _Rebekah thought in her head as she continued to cry tears of joy. Not one to ruin such a happy moment, Jimmy simply stood there and waited until they began to berate him once more. After several minutes Rebekah stopped crying and everyone released her, before turning to Jimmy. Rebekah's back was to him and Jimmy found himself sad that she wasn't looking at him either. Jimmy sighed and looked at the ground in shame. A light wind blew through the street they occupied and several leaves floated by, creating a scene that could have come out of a movie.

"Jimmy…"

Jimmy looked back up and noticed Rebekah was now only two feet away from him.

"Jimmy… what do you want?" Rebekah asked.

Of all the things she could have said to him, this by far the least expected. Jimmy was expecting her to hit him or shout at him, not this. Deciding not to take this for granted, Jimmy decided to tell the truth.

"I want… to apologize," he said, taking one of Rebekah's hands in his own. "I was an idiot to think things could have returned to normal between me and Marina, and I acted without thinking… Marina and I were going out for a long time before Vincent managed to split us up and the thought of returning to that relationship made me lose sight of what I already had. You're a beautiful girl Rebekah and I don't… I never did deserve your feelings. I'm sorry… I just wanted to save my home from Team Rocket."

Rebekah had used up all her tears but she still managed to look sad without crying. She put a hand on each of Jimmy's shoulders and pulled him into a light hug, resting her chin on his shoulder as he uneasily returned the embrace. As they stood there, Rebekah whispered into Jimmy's ear. _"Go save them. I believe in you."_ After a few more seconds Jimmy released Rebekah and faced the group as a whole. Ash was still looking angry but he seemed to also be understanding. Sabre looked disappointed, as did Angel and Jake. Mizu was staring at a nearby rose bush, not really paying attention in case she caused something to combust suddenly, as it was the rose bush was smouldering slightly. May was simply looking at him, nothing showing in her face… and Rebekah. Rebekah was smiling at him.

"Alright. Thanks for all your help guys," Jimmy said loudly so that everyone could hear. "Catch you later!"

And with that, Jimmy turned and walked away…

0o0o0o0o0o0

Ash stood nervously before the door of a house he hadn't been in for over a year. He had regularly phoned his mother to check up on her and tell her of his friends but he hadn't visited in person since before being thrown across Hoenn by Electra. Ash grimaced and rang the doorbell, waiting for either Mimey or his mother to answer. Behind him were all his friends, minus Jimmy who had left for Johto. It was a parting on sad circumstances but Ash knew that he'd be fine. After a moment the door opened and Ash was suddenly staring into a mass of reddish-brown hair and Deliah Ketchum smothered him in a tight embrace.

"Oh Ash! You're finally home, I missed you so much!" she cried.

Angel and the others decided to look around instead of witnessing Ash's embarrassment.

"Hello Deliah," Rebekah said shyly.

Mrs. Ketchum looked up and finally spotted the rest of them, with Rebekah in the front, smiling timidly.

"Rebekah, your home too! Where did you find Ash? And how many times have I asked you to call me 'mum' or even 'mother'? I was so worried about you both, and you must be their friends, well come in, come in!" Deliah exclaimed happily.

Angel decided that she found Mrs. Ketchum's cheerfulness to be almost as creepy as Sabre's on a good day. Sabre on the other hand, seemed sad again and Rebekah noticed as she led everyone inside her new home. Deciding to see what was wrong, since Sabre had defended her earlier; Rebekah took one of Sabre's large hands in her own and gave her a small smile. Sabre gave her a confused look, which all the more resolved Rebekah's determination to help her with whatever was troubling her.

"My room's upstairs. Come on."

Rebekah and Sabre made their way up to the guest room, in Sabre's mind, which was now Rebekah's room. Rebekah bounded in and sat on her bed before patting the spot at her side, inviting Sabre to sit down too. Sabre looked slightly embarrassed before she sat down too. The bed creaked loudly and the mattress sagged down slightly under Sabre's weight, surprising Rebekah. However, she focused on how Sabre seemed upset about something and what she herself could do to try and help her newfound friend.

"What's the matter Sabre? You seem kinda sad?" Rebekah asked.

Sabre's ears twitched, which Rebekah found to be very cute as they were exactly like the large rabbit ears that Pikachu's were famous for, except quite a bit larger. Rebekah tried hard not to giggle at the sight, despite not being too cheerful herself. Sabre gave her a backwards glance and her eyes seemed to darken even more, which was saying something as they were already blacker than black yet warm at the same time. Sabre sighed and her shoulders slouched down as she pondered on how to explain her problems without giving away too much of her thoughts.

"Well… I've known Ash ever since he started his pokemon journey all those years ago… as long as I've known his mother. However, back then… well look at me now compared to three years ago. How do I explain that to Deliah, to any of Ash's pokemon… my friends and comrades through our journey. I just don't know what to do or say," Sabre said sorrowfully, at the same time somewhat happy she hadn't said too much.

Rebekah herself had no idea of what Sabre was going through, never having had friends for as long as her, been separated for a long period only to come back radically different, physically and mentally. Rebekah's memory flashed back to a particularly violent beating she'd received as a small girl and she involuntarily shuddered, feeling angry with herself for bringing it up again. Sabre noticed this but said nothing, other than to give her a small but sad smile, which Rebekah returned. As one, the two women sighed and looked up to the ceiling, as if expecting an answer from the heavens. Nothing came…

Sabre also had a good chance to look around what she now correctly assumed to be Rebekah's permanent living space, provided entirely by Deliah's love and purse. Rebekah was still rather unused to actually having somewhere permanent to stay, having spent most of her life either in the streets, or travelling the road with Angel and her other friends. Living in a house was still alien to her and there were nights when she slept out in the back garden when she couldn't relax in her own bed. Posters hung on her wall, depicting various Fire-types including one particularly artistic impression of the legendary Entei. Rebekah also seemed to have a thing for Blaziken as then was a rather chibified plushy sitting against a wall next to a large orange beanbag as well as a bookcase, which seemed to serve as a reading corner. There was a desk with a large mirror on the wall just behind it, as well as several sheets of paper that seemed to have been scribbled on… and others with mismatched writing until there were sheets with short and neat handwriting. _'She practiced reading and writing here… she never knew until someone taught her how,'_ Sabre thought to herself.

"You're room is nice. This used to be where guests stayed but I think I like it better this way," Sabre murmured.

"T-Thanks… I guess," Rebekah replied, slightly embarrassed. "I'm wondering though, why did you stick up for me so… violently?"

"… No one deserves to be played like a puppet, to be discarded when one is not needed anymore. They should be cared for as all life is precious. No one should be a victim of circumstance or… natural selection- DAMMIT!!" Sabre suddenly shouted.

Rebekah jumped in fright at Sabre's sudden shout and the bustle from downstairs suddenly disappeared. Sabre's eyes had hardened to carbon steel cold and when she looked at Rebekah, Rebekah could almost _feel_ the sadness wash over her like a wave of icy water. It was such a terrible feeling that Rebekah could see, even though she knew it was just the tip of the iceberg that was Sabre's heart. Neither of them said a word, not even when Rebekah shifted closer to Sabre and put an arm around her waist (her shoulders were too high up to reach without standing up slightly), pulling her closer into a comforting embrace. Silently tears rolled down Sabre's bright red cheeks as she leaned into Rebekah and onto her shoulder.

"You lost someone close to you… didn't you?" Rebekah asked hesitantly.

"……….I-I thought of her a-as my own daughter… and t-they… Team R-Rocket… THEY TOOK HER FROM ME!!" Sabre exclaimed violently before breaking down completely and collapsing into Rebekah's lap, rivulets of tears causing a rather large wet patch to grow on her jeans.

Rebekah, all the while, was feeling very confused. She had never lost anyone so close to her besides her pokemon, whom she _had_ considered family but it just wasn't the same as losing a child. Someone you had raised the way you wanted them to be like. She simply couldn't imagine the pain Sabre was feeling, but it would have been a hundred times worse than Rebekah's legs getting sore from Sabre's impressive weight crushing down on them. However, despite her discomfort, Rebekah did all she could to comfort Sabre as she cried and cried. It took an age, but Sabre eventually exhausted herself and drifted off into a dreamless sleep and Rebekah was safely able to move her. The bed being too small by far, Rebekah laid Sabre out on the floor and draped her duvet over her as best she could, despite Sabre's large and bare rabbit-like feet still showing. Smiling slightly, Rebekah quietly left her room and tip-toed downstairs, hearing talking.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Ash was sweating bullets at the moment. He hadn't yet told his mother about Sabre and Pikachu's relation, despite her asking where Pikachu was. Otherwise everyone was simply sitting back in the pair of large couches that lived in the living room. The silence was stifling as Deliah looked around the many teenage faces and tried to find a topic of discussion to break the ice. May was fidgeting with the zip of her jacket, Gary was staring at the ground, Jake was looking around with his eyes, Angel was being somewhat distant as shown by the faraway look in her eyes, Mizu was staring right at Deliah which was making her concerned and no one knew what to say. Eventually Deliah decided that enough was enough…

"So… you're all Ash's friends then?" she asked simply.

"Yes. We're more like team-mates but we like to be social with each other and so have become good friends," Jake replied smoothly.

"Well, knowing Ash you're all bound to have had a few crazy adventures with him along. Rebekah as well, she's prone to being in the thick of it all," Deliah said in response.

"Well we try to avoid large towns, cities and overly populated areas. Our kind doesn't receive a very good reception in many places it would seem," Angel added.

"Yeah, back at that bar there were so many people just staring at you, it kinda creeped me out," Ash admitted.

"You were at a bar!" Deliah exclaimed in shock. "Ash, I'm surprised at you! You're underage!"

"I wasn't drinking! I was just-," Ash retorted.

A loud shout of "DAMMIT!!" caused silence to resume as everyone gazed at the ceiling. Deliah seemed to noticed that Rebekah was missing at last and looked around before beginning to make her way to the stairs. Ash was suddenly at her shoulder, blocking her way with an arm.

"Leave them alone for now, Sabre's personal issues are her concern so we shouldn't pry," he said seriously.

"Oh Ash, so young yet wise beyond your years… I'm proud of you," Deliah replied with a warm smile.

"_**So are we…"**_

Everyone turned and was shocked to find that the corridor leading from the living room was filled with armed men wearing full body armour and helmets; black with red R's adorning the chest. Angel cursed and anger began to well up inside of her. Why couldn't Team Rocket leave them alone for a few weeks, even a few days? But no, they just had to turn up right now and threaten to shoot them with high-tech weaponry. Just fan-fucking-tastic, to quote Mizu's currently swearing mouth. With gestures and threats, everyone in the room was forced outside into the empty street out front, where they stood in a line with at least twenty armed grunts facing in their direction. No one knew exactly where they were looking due to the face-covering helmets and blacked-out visors.

"What do you want?" Angel demanded as they were made to place their hands behind their heads.

"Ash, what do they want from us? Why have they got guns?" a frightened Deliah asked in a whisper.

"_**We want Team Rocket's property returned to us. Code name: Angel is to be handed over to us along with the Psychic and the anthromorph," **_who appeared to be the leader replied.

"Go suck on dirt," Mizu replied before her eyes flared with Psychic power.

Her entire body glowed, a light green in colour, before she attempted to telekinetically slam the grunts into the ground. Nothing happened to them, greatly confusing the cat-girl. One of the grunts lazily hefted his handgun and shot a bullet into Mizu's right thigh. Mizu cried out in pain and collapsed onto her injured leg, sprawling out on the concrete path. Angel flinched and glared with barely suppressed rage but didn't move, aware that they would shoot her too if she moved. She didn't need to be able to walk to be brought back to Team Rocket. Some of the grunts were laughing now, one of them lightly kicking Mizu's shoulder. Mizu simply whimpered and curled up into a ball, clutching her wounded leg.

"_**Now then. Come with us and the rest of you will be unharmed," **_the leader stated, his voice distorted by his helmet.

"I agree with Mizu, you guys can go to hell," May spat out.

Without breaking eye contact with any of them, May spat onto the leader's black boot with incredible accuracy. One of the other grunts tensed and raised his handgun, aiming for May's heart. Everyone heard the small metallic clicking as the trigger was slowly pulled. No shot was heard though as a red blur blew past the grunts, bowling all of them off their feet. Most recovered instantly though, handguns raised at their captives before Angel or anyone had a chance to move. The red blur was already gone as a few others looked around, searching for what hit them.

"Hey bucket heads!"

They turned around. Rebekah gave them a confident smirk.

"You missed me."

With that, she exploded into rapid movement one more as six of the grunts opened fire on her previous position. She weaved in and out of them easily, seemingly unaffected by the law of inertia as she turned sharply at impossible speeds. Three grunts were simply disarmed as she grabbed their offending weapons and threw them away. Knowing she didn't have much time, Rebekah bowled them all over again before any of the others decided to shoot any of her friends. As she skidded to a halt and turned she spotted one of the Grunts aiming at May while lying on the ground. Rebekah rushed forward but she was too late to stop the bullet from being fired. As skidded to a halt in the path of the round, protecting May with her own body. _'Protecting someone you care about…' _was her last thought before the sound of flesh being torn open and the spattering of blood sounded in her ears.

No pain…

This is what it feels like…

Wait… I don't feel any different…

Rebekah's eyes snapped open and she cried out in shock at the sight that met her eyes. Jimmy lay on the ground in front of her, a pool of red spreading out from under him as a red stain blossomed out on his shirt. A small round wound could be seen on his chest and Rebekah knew that if he wasn't already dead, he would be soon. She narrowed her eyes and looked up, only to find the barrel of the gun that shot him between her eyes. The grunt holding the gun seemed to be smirking through his visor at her.

"_**Now for the hero…" **_he said sarcastically.

The crack rang out in Rebekah's ears as the gun discharged yet she once again felt no pain. She felt a small piece of metal touching the bridge of her nose and the tingle of electricity, suddenly realizing what had happened. Her eyes squinted at her own nose and she could see the bullet spinning slowly as it was held back by some kind of electric force. Without this it was clear that said supersonic arrow would have entered her skull and penetrated her brain, killing her instantly.

"You guys just signed yourselves up for an ass kicking!" Sabre declared before she let loose.

The first time anyone except Angel had seen Sabre in full action was a memory they would never forget. Against 17 armed grunts and 3 unarmed grunts she delivered what would be known as her signature technique. She cupped her hands and the crackle of electricity was heard, blindingly bright as a ball of lightning formed. Just as she tensed… it vanished. Except Angel, everyone wondered, _'What the hell was that?!'_ before Sabre surprised them all. No one knew yet but Sabre had used the lightning to super-heat the air around her hands for the briefest of moments to create a thunder-like effect. At close range a thunderclap could knock a person off their feet and this was just what this technique was made to do.

"_Thunder Crash!!_" Sabre shouted.

She clapped her hands together hard and the thunderclap that was about to form was forced to change shape and focus in one direction. As such, the focused wall of air was stronger than any normal clap of thunder and all the grunts were hurtled back several metres. Sabre smirked at everyone's awe-struck faces and prepared her next attack. However, it was then that she noticed Jimmy's prone body lying on the ground in front of Rebekah. Shock hammered into her body like a battering ram and Sabre completely froze, images of Kiara's premature death flashing before her eyes. _'N-No… not again, I don't want t-to… No…' _Sabre's thoughts were chaotic as she tried to sort out what she was feeling. It was then that a black rage like no other settled on her heart and her mind went numb. The sparks of electricity that jumped from her body into the air increased in frequency and began turning black in colour. No one could move as the air around them suddenly became heavy, making it hard to breathe as Sabre's eyes flared with raw anger.

"**You… do not… deserve… to live…" **she rasped through ragged, enraged breaths.

One of the grunts, still trembling, managed to bring his handgun up at Sabre and try to pull the trigger. The keyword was 'tried'. Sabre's right eye twitched and suddenly every single gun was pulled from the grunts and turned in midair to face them instead. Sabre, using her powers to create the magnetic field responsible for this, gave a dark and hollow sounding laugh. Angel and the others of her team didn't know what to do. Sabre had gone mad! Angel knew that it was a bad idea to get Sabre angry and that, back on the station, whenever she did she would always leave and Angel would hear the sound of distant explosions. Angel didn't know what Team Rocket had done to Sabre herself as they turned her into what she was now, but they must have been responsible for this… _monster_ in front of them. Sabre spread her arms wide and all of the arranged guns gave the sound of the catch being pulled back and the safety coming off. Suddenly things were looking a whole lot more dangerous.

"Sabre, stop it!" Angel shouted, her voice coming back to her.

"**Why?" **Sabre responded simply.

"You don't want to lower yourself to their level do you? You don't want to do what they did to you!" Angel answered loudly.

Sabre actually paused at this and slowly seemed to become calmer, her powers at work weakening. The guns held in the magnetic field stayed steadfast however, as Sabre reverted to her normal self, though she looked decidedly tired and sad. Angel gave a sigh of relief as the grunts chose this moment to try and run for it. Sabre's head snapped up, back to them and each handgun went off simultaneously. Each grunt gave a cry of pain and collapsed on the ground as a leg gave out on each of them. It appeared as though Sabre wasn't aiming to kill any of them…

"Call the police. Get rid of this trash…" Sabre said quietly before trudging back into the house.

Deliah snapped out of her terrified stupor and rushed after her, to get to the phone and do as she said.

"Mizu, knock these guys out and drag them round back. Also, everyone just leave Sabre alone for the moment," Angel declared to her team-mates and friends.

Everyone besides Angel and Rebekah nodded and turned to where Jimmy had fallen. Rebekah knelt down next to him, her eyes swimming with tears, and she clasped one his hands in her own. He was cold… Rebekah couldn't take it anymore and broke down on the ground as Angel watched over her, trying to deal with the loss of a friend herself. Angel wasn't new to death; not at all… she was heartbroken over the death of someone so close to them all as Jimmy, even though he was supposed to have separated from their team. Angel shook her head sadly… something made him come back and he sacrificed himself to save Rebekah's life, as without him getting in the way of the first shot Sabre wouldn't have had time to save Rebekah from the second. As callous as that sounded Angel was proud of the sacrifice Jimmy had made to protect that which was important to him. Angel kneeled down next to Rebekah and put an arm around her shoulder as Rebekah leaned into her, her shoulders still shaking with sobs.

"Don't worry Rebekah. What Jimmy did was very brave and you should be proud of what he did," Angel whispered.

"W-why? Why d-did he do it t-though? I-I'm n-not worth it… not for his life!!" Rebekah wailed.

Angel simply hugged her friend tighter, ignoring the fact that her sports bra she was wearing was quickly becoming damp with tears. With a sigh, Angel reached her other hand over to Jimmy's body and gently touched its forehead with a finger. A small flash of cyan light pulsed around the corpse and rigor mortis set in instantaneously, along with the cold temperature now preserving it for many years to come. Mizu's eyes began to glow a light green and an aura of psychic power formed around her body as her telekinetic abilities lifted the body into the air at waist height, before levitating it towards the house.

Later that day…

"So, as we say farewell to our friend, we know… we know we shall never see him again. His determination and his heart were what propelled him through this world. So if we ever want to amount to his level of bravery, we will fight Team Rocket to our last breaths and drive them off of the face of this world, forever!!" Angel concluded. "For Jimmy!"

"For Jimmy!!" the others replied, each filled with fiery determination to not let their friend's sacrifice go in vain.

The wooden casket Rebekah had crafted herself from a felled tree slowly lowered into the hole in the ground in silence, Ash, May, Gary and Jake lowering the ropes as gently as possibly. Once resting on the bottom of the pit they began the sad task of refilling the grave. Standing on the hill watching the sunset, overlooking Newbark Town was where they had decided to bury Jimmy. That was he was always home and could watch over it, like he had wanted to in life. It was Rebekah's idea and no one argued, even if the journey to Newbark Town took several hours. Also, telling Jimmy's parents had been heartbreaking…

Rebekah's eyes were puffy and red with tears but the fire in her eyes was so strong that smoke was thinly wafting from her body. _'I'll destroy those bastards if it's the last thing I do. Jimmy gave me an idea of what it was to have bonds… to be loved. I'll be damned if I let his sacrifice go to waste. Team Rocket… you have brought Armageddon to your doorstep,' _Rebekah thought darkly. _'Don't worry Jimmy… you're home now.' _

Behind her Rebekah knew Jimmy's parents were watching her. They didn't blame anyone as she had made they perfectly aware of the brave circumstances of theirs son's death. Once the filling of the grave was finished, Rebekah looked at the tombstone that had been created. It read: _"Here lies Jimmy Rozenko. A good Son and a good Friend. RIP" _Suddenly, Rebekah felt that this wasn't enough and so made her way over to it before it was properly erected and touched it with a single finger. The heat she was generating through sheer vibration was enough to carve in one last detail. Once she was finished Rebekah turned and walked away… she never looked back. After her ministrations the tombstone read:

Here lies Jimmy Rozenko

A good Son and a good Friend

An even greater HERO

R.I.P

0o0o0o0o0o0

It was a week since the funeral and Angel, along with Jake and Mizu, had decided that it was time they set out again. Sabre had recalled the locations of a number of facilities for either research or for recruitment and the team was eager to see these facilities derelict. Team spirit was low… until Deliah entered the living room with a surprise.

"Everyone, Ash told me you were going to be leaving today so I decided to make you all a little something," she announced brightly.

May, Ash, Gary and Rebekah weren't surprised at this as they knew Deliah; however everyone else was surprised and touched, even Sabre. Sabre may have been a Pikachu in years gone by but she hadn't really ever gotten to know her trainer's mother. Deliah wasted no time in handing out large boxes which everyone accepted gracefully and Angel took the initiative in opening them to see what was contained within them. She gave a small gasp of delight as she pulled out a long, pitch black trench coat with slits at the sides for her legs to have more room. It was rather typical as Angel looked it over until she saw the sapphire 'A' emblazoned on the back and right hand breast pocket. Along with these, which brought a smile to Angel's lips, there was also the fact that the back was built in three sections. A large cover was made over what would have been a rectangular hole on the back; however a portion of the sides was unstitched and would allow for Angel's wings to grow out without there being an obvious addition that looked suspicious. Along with the coat, there was a plain black pair of combats and a black, tight-fitting, long-sleeved top made of a soft yet durable material. Everyone had the same combats and top (the guys had turtle-necks and the girls had v-necks) except for Sabre whose top was made of what appeared to be latex and was also several sizes larger, along with having the stylized A on the stomach area. The one thing that was majorly different was everyone's coats. Jake's was a normal black jacket with the sapphire A on the front and back, except what he didn't yet know was that his outfit was made out of threads created from the atomic structure of a Ditto, along with his top being sleeveless. Rebekah's jacket was styled like a leather biker jacket, made from the tanned hide of a Miltank and dyed black. Like Angel's and Jake's it had the 'A' logo. Rebekah knew immediately that the jacket would hold up even under extreme stress or friction.

"Thank you mum, its perfect!" she exclaimed excitedly, leaving the room to don her new outfit.

Ash's and May's coats were the same, basically normal leather jackets that went to the backs of the knees, with the team logo. Mizu's was the most different… it was a black cloak, complete with a hood and clasp. Mizu realised that Deliah would have had to do a lot of research to find out that she had a liking for robes and cloaks, because of their simplicity and elegance. Mizu sometimes daydreamed about wearing various beautiful kimonos or yukatas (both types of Japanese dress, yukatas being more casual).

"… thank you Mrs. Ketchum, this is very thoughtful of you," Mizu said appreciatively.

"It was my pleasure dear. Just make sure that you all stay safe and come again," Deliah said, her eyes beginning to water.

Ash smiled and embraced his mother warmly, allowing her to lean on him for emotional support. Deliah had no idea what kind of danger Ash could get into but seeing one of his friends gunned down had shown her that Ash was involved in something that could take his life. A few days ago Deliah had taken Ash aside and tried to forbid him from interacting with these people because they were _'too dangerous for my only son to get mixed up with'_. Unfortunately Rebekah had overheard and the resulting argument had left both emotionally tender and several acres of forest destroyed.

The sound of footsteps reached everyone's ears and they watched as Rebekah re-emerged, dressed in the new 'uniform'. _'There's something to be said for black leather and how attractive it can make a woman,' _was the thought more or less going through each male's mind and possibly some of the females. As it was, Sabre was trying not to blush from embarrassment and shyness. Being a pokemon meant that normal human social traditions were lost on her and most were confusing to Sabre, if not downright idiotic in her opinion. What sort of person would try to avoid conflict if it was the only way to resolve tension? Sabre's life before becoming faux-human was all about the battle and being the strongest. Now that she had a new perspective on the life of humans she found herself wondering what she could do.

'_I have the Team Rocket equivalent of a PhD in Physics and Chemistry… hehe, things going boom. __But I have no likes or dislikes to compare to other people's… how can I fit in?' _she thought morosely, surprising herself at how suddenly her mood had dropped.

Sabre glared at her own sun-kissed blonde fur that covered almost 100 of her body on the outside. However, she had managed to trim it down so that it was more like light fuzz, however this had allowed for denser hair coverage to grow in. Also, she was aware that her fur was still soft like the down of a Latias. Thinking of the pokemon, Sabre looked at May briefly, wondering where Latias was. Sabre averted her gaze and tried to clear her head, her rabbit-like ears visibly drooping as a result. Sabre left the room to change into the clothes Deliah had provided while some of her team-mates did the same. Sabre entered Rebekah's room and turned to the mirror on the wall next to the door. After a moment's hesitation she began to undress. There wasn't much to take off as she had still to change from the outfit she was forced to endure in team Rocket's space station as nothing in the house was able to fit her without breaking. Now fully unclothed, Sabre turned back to the mirror and gazed at her own body, aware of how different she was. Her tail twitched in agitation and her ears flopped down completely, resting on her long ebony hair that trailed down her back.

"I can't fit in with normal humans. I don't know if there are others of my kind. Can I fit in where everyone else looks remotely normal?" Sabre asked her reflection, not expecting an answer.

"No one is the same, each of us are unique in our own way. Human and pokemorph alike… are you alright Sabre?" came from the direction of the mirror.

Sabre looked up and realised that Rebekah had returned to her room and was standing next to the mirror, the door hanging open… along with her mouth. Rebekah must have come in, hearing what Sabre had said but only just realised that she was naked. Sabre flinched but made no move to cover herself up, it was a natural instinct for her. Rebekah took a short moment to realise what she was seeing and shut her door quickly before it could become more embarrassing for either of them. Seeing that Sabre made no move to hide herself made Rebekah more comfortable with the situation but as it was she found that she was too embarrassed to look at her friend.

"Am I that ugly? Can you not look at me without being repulsed?" Sabre asked, her voice cracking.

This managed to make Rebekah look up.

"What? How did you come to that conclusion?!" she exclaimed incredulously, yet keeping her voice down. "I'm embarrassed because I walked in on you changing!"

Sabre's expression didn't change and she seemed nonplussed.

"It embarrassing for that to happen…" Rebekah tried again.

Still no response.

"You're naked…"

"So what?" Sabre suddenly replied, not understanding why Rebekah was so flustered.

Sabre recalled Angel acting in a similar fashion when they first 'met' on the space station a few years ago. Maybe it was a reaction to do with attraction? Sabre had noticed human's blush when thinking erotic thoughts, however this also came with nosebleeds on occasion. Maybe Rebekah really was embarrassed? Rebekah blushed even more when Sabre assumed a thinking pose (Sabre folded her arms, squeezing her ample breasts together in a rather provocative manner) and picked up Sabre's new outfit, holding it up to her. Sabre took the offered garments and began to pull on the combats. Suddenly Rebekah remembered why she came back to her room and picked up her pokebelt, complete with two hip pouches for items and capsules.

"Anyway Sabre. It's considered indecent for a person to see another person naked as that is when a person is vulnerable," Rebekah tried to explain.

"I could defeat you unarmed, clothed or not as my fur is fireproof. However in temperatures exceeding one hundred and twenty degrees Celsius I can lose consciousness," Sabre replied easily.

Rebekah smiled cheekily. "We'll see tough guy. Anyway, I mean that people can more easily take advantage of an undressed person and also, open perversity is frowned upon. Besides... I never said anything about you being ugly now did I?" she said, blushing brightly with a coy smile.

Sabre's eyes brightened in understanding. She smiled more warmly at Rebekah and, dropping her top she was about to wear, she grabbed Rebekah into a pulverising hug. Rebekah, having been thoroughly embarrassed to begin with, began to feel light-headed as her face was pushed mercilessly into Sabre's very ample bosom. Soon after, Sabre released her and Rebekah drew in a breath of life, her face almost literally on fire.

"Thank you for explaining it to me Rebekah. I appreciate it," Sabre declared happily.

"Anytime Sabre. Friends help one another, right… friend?" she replied, smiling.

"Right, friend."

* * *

**And cut!**

**Well this chapter was rather devoid o action but hopefully you'll have gathered a more in-depth view of some of the characters.**

**Sabre: exuberant to hide her weaknesses, angry at Team Rocket, her heart is cold but Rebekah is slowly warming her back up, likes ketchup (duuuh), cares deeply for her friends, has an intense dislike for May.**

**Rebekah: is unsure of her feelings now, is saddened by Jimmy's death, blames herself for not being fast enough (more to do with her agility but meeh), has a bond forming with Sabre, has issues with her sexuality; such as meeting Gray, seeing Angel's breasts that one time, and now Sabre… poor girl.**

**Jimmy: KIA (what more is there to say? And no he won't be revived or anything Gary Stu like that, he's DEAD!!)**

**Angel: will need to rebuild her relationship with Jake after being absent for almost 3 years, disturbed that Jake doesn't age like her, is concerned about leading her friends into unnecessary danger, is worried that she is a bad influence and will get her friends killed, has a sisterly bond with Sabre (they are very close to one another).**

* * *


	34. Chapter 34: The L Word

**Dark Angel**

**You asked and I delivered, it's time for a new chapter… I'm really proud of this story. It's a testament to my evolving skill as a writer, from chapter one to the now 34****th**** chapter. Hopefully you'll enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed writing it, plus there'll be more action and a bit of fluffy romance in this one… ok, maybe a lot of fluffy romance, to make up for lost time. Also (I know this is unusual) there will be a NSFW scene of explicitness. This will be a rape scene and I hope none of you hold it against me but it's necessary for more character development and will take place in an early flashback. But there will be love and comfort so don't all you fluff lovers worry too much.**

**Angel: … I g-get… wuv? Big teary eyes**

**Author: Yes Angel… you get wuv.**

**Angel: Yaaaaay! hugs Author Oh yes, and a hearty greeting to Jeremy… Lucius… whatever your name is… anyways you're right in saying Jimmy died pretty fast. However when you think about it he just ran into the scene and took a fatal bullet for someone. Doesn't really leave much room for heartfelt goodbyes… w-why? Why didn't I get to say goodbye!? Bursts into tears**

**Sabre: Not that this isn't already fluffy; I guess we should get started. But wait… there's a… thingy… umm… line?**

**Author: The Japanese call it an Omake I believe. Meh, I'll just call it a spoof, lol.**

* * *

_**Dark Angel: Spoof**_

Angel walked into the room and immediately noticed the depressing atmosphere. Sabre was in a corner, rocking back and forth, muttering endlessly to herself. Rebekah was sprawled lazily on the couch, flicking through channels faster than most could follow. May was complaining to Ash about Rebekah's flicking and Ash was desperately trying to sleep on the small table against the far wall. In all the commotion, Jake was not present… nor was Mizu or Gary for that matter. Angel decided enough was enough when May's whining raised another octave and started to greatly annoy her.

"SHUT, THE FUCK, UP!!" she screamed.

There was silence, broken only by the static of the TV and Sabre's continuing mumbles. No one moved as they stared incredulously at Angel.

"Many thanks," the icy woman said.

Suddenly Jake burst into the room, red-faced and obviously looking for a place to hide, if the darting eyes and wringing hands were any indication. Angel was about to ask what was wrong when he simply melted and phased into the floor as Mizu burst into the room clad only in a rather short towel.

"Where is that copycat bastard!" she roared, her cat ears twitching furiously.

Mizu's tail swished angrily through the air as she breathed heavily. No one needed to ask what happened; it was obvious Jake went somewhere he shouldn't have. However, Angel was getting more than annoyed at all the pandemonium when all she wanted to do was watch Pokemon: Diamond and Pearl. When the claws came out, Angel decided to stop things before someone was missing a limb. However it would need to be unexpected and spontaneous so that everyone would feel the fear. Angel nearly shuddered in excitement but held it in, waiting for the right moment to reveal her new talent.

"Mizu…" she said coldly.

"Hmm?" Mizu asked, not really listening.

The noise that followed was akin to the screech of an eagle as it dived on its prey, yet this was many times louder and was coming from her sister's vocal cords. The sheer force of this screeching was enough to cause Mizu's damp hair to flutter as if in a breeze. Mizu flinched back at the expression of anger from Angel, not wanting to be the newest ice sculpture in the garden. The screech only lasted about a second but it was enough that everyone, even Sabre, was completely shocked still. Jake himself was now standing behind Mizu, having been scared right out of the floor.

"Thank you for listening," Angel said dangerously. "Now then, I'm going to watch TV and everyone else is going to be quieter, or so help me I will make the temperature in Ice Age look like the Sahara!"

Sabre suddenly looked up.

"Angel?"

"_**Yes?"**_

"If I thought I had a thought, then obviously I had a thought. But if I thought I had a thought then did I have another thought?"

Everyone facefaulted.

__

**End spoof.**

**Well how was that? I might decide to include more spoofs in later chapters if I feel up to being funny. Also, thanks for the reviews guys but for some reason my email doesn't notify me of any new reviews. Any ideas?**

**Sabre: Goddammit, okay I'm starting the show! grabs remote and presses play**

**Chapter 34:**** The L-Word… and Fighting**

Angel opened her eyes at precisely 6:30am as she always had for the past two and a half years. With a small yawn she sat up in her temporary bed in the new guest room of Ash's house, which contained two bunk beds for up to four guests (duh). Thankfully she was not tall enough to bump her head on the ceiling but Sabre, who woke up at the same time as her, was not so fortunate. Her head bumped into the ceiling rather hard and Sabre had to shake the stars out of her eyes before she was able to see properly. Angel and Sabre simultaneously rubbed the sleep from their eyes and got off the top bunks, landing quietly on the floor. Mizu and May below them continued to sleep peacefully, unaware that their roommates were up and about.

"I think it's time for us to leave Sabre. Team Rocket knows where we are and we risk other's safety remaining here," Angel suddenly said.

"You'll tell the others?" Sabre asked, as she pulled on her combats.

"Of course. You know, ever since we came back Jake has stood guard outside our room. How he sleeps standing up is beyond me…" Angel replied, lacing up her boots.

"Maybe he doesn't. Maybe he just stands there, keeping guard. Content in the knowledge that he's keeping you safe," Sabre theorized.

As they were talking, they both pulled on their jackets and Angel finally got a good look at the new outfit that Mrs. Ketchum had gifted them with. It was quite the get-up, black and leather. Sabre's just screamed 'sexy' and 'distracting' at her since Sabre's size made some of her clothes stretch, particularly the chest area of her latex top. However, her jacket was large enough to zip up without being too tight but Angel still thought that there was waaaay too much emphasis on Sabre's impressive rack. She would have to see about getting a larger top for her somewhere lest her jealousy make her say something mean.

As the two women exited the guestroom, Rebekah slouched out of her room and Jake turned to them from his post at the door. All four teens yawned in unison and looked at one another blearily until it became apparent that no one else was going to get up at the moment. Rebekah, fully dressed as well, glanced at Sabre and smiled slightly, which did not go unnoticed by Sabre, who smiled in return. Neither Jake nor Angel caught this as they were busy staring at each other as well, Jake giving Angel a warm smile and Angel returning it. Jake was concerned though as her smile had an almost _hungry_ look to it as if she was going to take a bite out of him. Deciding not to tempt her, Jake was the first to go downstairs and into the kitchen, to begin the arduous task of creating breakfast for 8 teens and an overly cheerful mother… and Mimey.

"Who wants what?" Jake asked while rifling through the pantry.

"Cereal." Angel's.

"Toast?" Rebekah's.

"Cheese and ham sandwich…"

Jake blinked and turned to Sabre. He was briefly stunned by the fact that she wanted something normal to eat instead of what he assumed was her normal, crazy ideas of tasty food. Ketchup cheesecake was only dreamed about by the crazy… then again perhaps Sabre was being crazy by being unpredictable and to be unpredictable she would have to be normal, which she normally isn't. Then again, Jake could just be over thinking things and decided to stop this train of thought before his head melted. He quickly assembled each teen's breakfast and dealt it out onto the kitchen table, receiving various thanks. The breakfast was a rather subdued affair, with no one making much effort to start a conversation, much to Angel's chagrin. She was hoping that her friends would still be able to be sociable to one another… or perhaps it was her and Sabre? They hadn't been around for that long and the silence was rather unsettling. So, being impulsive for once, Angel decided to start talking.

"So Rebekah, I heard that Mrs. Ketchum adopted you during our… absence. How's that working for you?"

Rebekah blinked, not knowing how to respond to the sudden question. She swallowed her bite of toast and thought briefly before giving her reply.

"Mum is a wonderful person and I couldn't possibly be happier to have found someone to love me as a mother should. I… was so lonely before I found you guys and there were times where I j-just couldn't cope… but when I met you all I finally made friends. But there was still a hole left to be filled, a sense of belonging that needed to be found. Now that it has, I'm finally at peace," she said solemnly, her eyes shining with emotion.

Angel wasn't sure how to continue a conversation after such a reply and was left, stuck trying to decide whether to ask about Rebekah's past or to leave it alone. However, before she coul decide, Sabre beat her to the punch.

"What happened?"

That simple question made Rebekah's eyes begin to water and Sabre blinked in confusion, wondering how she upset her friend. Rebekah sniffed and tried to stop her hands from trembling like they were now while she did her best to answer, thinking her friends deserved the truth.

"My past is… difficult. I have no memories about my life before I was about six years old, but I can't imagine they were any less pleasant. I don't know how I came to be what I am now… but my earliest memory was of waking up in the rain on the doorstep of an elderly couple, who took me in for the night. They fed and clothed me, once having a child of their own. However when the morning came I left and decided to try and find out who I was. But the old woman gave me a bracelet of obsidian to remind me of the spark of generosity they had shown me. I never forgot their kindness, despite not knowing if they're still alive… sniff" Rebekah paused to wipe her eyes before continuing. "I found myself in a small village in a large forest area and decided to stay in a small abandoned hut in a clearing. There, I began my life of trying to make friends and a living in the town. But the shopkeepers wouldn't sell to me; the villagers looked at me with distrust, fear… even hate. Some went so far as to beat me one day while I was playing… I didn't know what to do so I just let them until they left… I still remember that day-."

_**Flashback…**_

_A small red and blonde haired child, no more than seven or eight years old, lay in a damp alleyway while rain poured down overhead like the tears leaking from her eyes as she sobbed to herself. She hurt all over when the bad men hit her__ and she didn't know why they did it. She must have been a bad girl somehow but she didn't understand. Why wouldn't any of the other children play with her? Why couldn't she have any friends? For the past week she had lived off the berries the forest provided and the scraps of food she could find in the trash when no-one was looking, but she still went to bed hungry each night. She seemed to be the average height of a healthy eight year old but in truth she was only five. She was tall and unnaturally thin due to her starvation. Her only companion in the alley was her own shadow and a pair of small, curious eyes. The small, malnourished girl looked up when she heard a small whining and saw what appeared to be a stray Growlithe. The pokemon seemed to be as hungry as she was and she couldn't help but feel sorry for the lost pokemon._

"… _H-hello. Why are you here? Where's your home?" she asked hesitantly._

_Not expecting a reply she was surprised when she could understand the pokemon's reply._

"_**I have no home… no master… **__**what about you?"**__ it said._

"_I have no home, 'cept a small shed I live in just outside the village. The mean old men don't like me…" she answered, sniffing sadly._

_The pokemon whined softly and moved closer to her, but was shocked when the girl moved away from it, as if afraid. Her eyes showed her fear and even in the rain the Growlithe could smell it radiating from her. Why was she so afraid? It wasn't going to hurt her… unless she was already hurt? The pokemon looked at her more closely and noticed the darkening bruises on her arms and left cheek, under her eye. Then it noticed the small horn protruding from her forehead slightly, along with a faint smell of ash. The girl noticed that the pokemon wasn't coming any closer and looked warily at it. The pokemon seemed to be watching her but she could hear its belly growling. With a small sigh, Rebekah reached into her baggy, torn shirt and pulled out a beaten and bruised Pecha berry. She pushed it towards the Growlithe and stood up, walking away sadly. The Growlithe was amazed that the girl would willingly give up what it assumed was her only meal for it when she was afraid earlier. Not wanting to offend her it ate half of the berry and took the rest, before following her out into the empty street._

"_**Wait!" **__it called around the berry in its mouth._

_The girl turned and watched with a small warm feeling in her tummy as the pokemon gave her back half of the berry and licked her hand in thanks. As of that moment the young girl had made her very first friend and the two would share a bond closer than family. The girl called the pokemon by its name, Kiba, which meant Fang as a sign of respect but she had no name of her own… not that she could remember. This small fact was a source of more hurt than the beatings she would and Kiba would receive over the many later months as the continued to barely sustain themselves with wild fruits and leftovers like common scavengers. However, each time someone would strike at the girl, Kiba would come to her aide, biting and barking, only to be called deranged and dangerous. After a particularly violent assault which left Kiba and his friend bleeding in a gutter, did the girl make up her mind._

"_You__ can't stay with me… not like this. I want you to but you can't cus the growed ups think you're bad and it's dangerous for you," she whispered quietly, trying to blink the blood out of her eyes from the cut on her forehead._

"_**W-why? Where would I go? I can't just leave you here!"**__ Kiba protested._

"_You have to. I can't fight back and you can't cus they'll hurt you. It's better for us both…"_

"_**B-but…… I t-thought we were f-friends…"**_

"_We're more than friends… we're family. But you have to go so the growed ups won't hurt you. Pwease? For me?"_

"_**I used to have a family. My mother was the partner of a Pokemon trainer… but our trainer couldn't support me and so he was forced to leave me. You have been my mother since the day we met… you have been Rebekah to me," **__Kiba said, his growls choked with whimpers._

"_R-Rebekah huh? Heh, I like that…" the newly named child murmured._

**_Eight years later…__Rape scene here, not for the faint of heart! You were warned!_**

_Rebekah was in trouble once more. As she grew up into a teenager the villagers began to fear her more. She was stronger than a grown man and incredibly fast like the pokemon she resembled. She was like a demon child. She stole food and clothes, sent people who tried to get rid of her to the hospital and was a general menace. Travelling merchants wouldn't do business when they learned of here, opting to stay away from the village, and children rarely ventured outside for fear of being eaten by the 'monster-lady'. Deciding that enough was enough, a particularly impulsive village began to gather a group of others to rid their small town of the demon. There were about five men in all. They found her hiding behind a rubbish skip, watching a fruit vendor carefully. It was obviously planning on stealing from him._

"_Hey you filthy demon! Stay away from him!" one of the men shouted at her._

_The 'demon' jumped in surprise and tried to run away but another one of the men grabbed her from behind and pinned her arms behind her. The men then took it in turns to hit her, trying to make her leave the village and generally vent their frustrations. When one of them used a small pocket knife and ripped her baggy shirt did one of the other men get an idea. He grabbed her torn shirt and ripped it away, revealing her bare torso to the rest of them. Had she been human they would have considered her 'well developed' but she was a demon and probably made herself look that way to fool people. Rebekah, not knowing what the men were doing besides hurting her, tried to get free but the man holding her had a tight grip and she couldn't break her arms free, and her legs were too sore to move. She was getting cold from her exposed chest and as a result her nipples became hard and more pronounced. This caused the men to become aroused and more daring with their assault. It was fortunate that they were hidden so no one could see what they were about to do to make sure the demon would leave them alone._

_Just the thought of fucking this seemingly helpless girl who was most likely the one that caused all the problems for the other villagers made them grow a bit harder. At that thought one of the men had to chuckle darkly. "I'm going to fuck you till you can't properly move for the rest of your meaningless life," he growled lust dripping off his words, nipping her neck._

_Rebekah's eyes began to water with pain and fear as he kept at the assault on her neck. She had begun to realize that these men were going to hurt her... badly. The man that was lustfully attacking her neck stopped to let one hand roam around her body. Feeling her tense as his hand came up to rest on the inside of her inner thigh, he smirked. She nearly broke down, but the bastard's knee prevented her from falling to the ground. "What's wrong demon, are you not enjoying this?" he whispers out. 'NO!' she yelled to herself shaking her head violently. His blow to her stomach hurt quite a bit and she was having a little trouble breathing now._

_"What a shame because I'm more than happy to see you," The man said pressing his arousal into Rebekah's core, causing her head to tilt back and a strangled moan to escape. She frowned, try as she might she couldn't help but like the physical attention, seeing as how she was too busy with trying to survive to attempt to make friends or even find a better home. No one had ever touched her in a way other than to cause her bodily harm, and while these men were no different, the way they were doing it seemed to bring a good tingly feeling._

_She was dragged from her thoughts, as he began removing her shabby and tattered trousers to much less than she was comfortable with, no man had ever seen her naked, and if they did she had no recollection of it what so ever. God help the peeping tom, if she ever was to find out._

_His mouth then moved to the exposed skin, nipping at her nipple as he had to her neck before. She began to sweat out of nervousness and that __**feeling**__._

_The man who was causing her so much pleasure and fear and pain and sadness, looked up at the girl as he kept moving closer and closer at a slow rate that was driving him crazy and causing Rebekah's breathing to increase, to the small amount of cleavage that was just calling his name. He quickly grabbed her small perky breast in his hand, which caused a rather loud gasp to escape her parted lips, at which he twitched a little and smirked. Who would've thought a brat and demon-bitch like her would make him feel like this, he certainly hadn't. He began massaging the uncovered mound, doing it faster and faster until he heard at last heard a tiny squeak. He squeezed it one good hard time, and there it was the noise he was looking for, the noise that drove him finally tore her trousers right off, exposing a frayed pair of white panties that were actually quite clean, contrary to the rest of her._

_He stared at them, 'Why is he staring!?' Rebekah asked frantically inside her jumbled head of many questions, but sadly no answers came. She blushed madly trying to pull her hands from his grasp to cover herself, but he only held them tighter as to make sure she couldn't get them free. He looked at her flushed face and smirked. Her eyes widened when he licked his lips and lowered his head to be at eye level with them. His tongue reached out for it and licked the front of them teasingly, causing poor Rebekah to move around._

_"That's right squirm for me." the evil man murmured against her now wet panties. _

_He took a finger and slowly slid it between her thighs and up to the front of her hips. She winced, this was definitely the good feeling she had before but now it made her very uneasy and she just wanted to go home, back to her shed in the woods with all the webs and dust, where the Spinarak played at night while she watched in awe. She wanted to go back to running from the mean men as she swiped a loaf of bread to sustain herself for the day, she wanted to hide in tall, leafy trees and silently laugh at their futile efforts to find her. Most of all… she wanted away from __**here**__. Another pleasurable shudder than up Rebekah's spine, causing the fire haired pokemorph to once again be pulled from her thoughts, the first man was tugging at her wet panties._

_"Please leave me alone, I won't -" Rebekah began to plead but was quickly shut up by the man before her. _

_"Pleading? Do you really think that'll work?" his husky voice rang through her ears._

_She gulped and let her head fall… no she didn't but she couldn't help but try._

_"No response? Come on, try again," he taunted with that horrible smirk, she could just see the smirk on his real face, but this one made it all the more worse, seeing as how it was mirrored by his four other friends._

_Then two of the other men, tired of waiting, began to trail their hands between her two breasts and began to drift it down, liking the goose bumps that appeared. They felt her breath hitch as they finally hit the top of her lacy but rather frayed and dirty panties. "Don't please..." she pleaded again fearing the worst. That was it, her pleads turned them on even more, making them harder. _

_"Plead for help my little demon," he whispered, tugging more at her underwear._

_Then she did something she hoped she wouldn't, even in a circumstance like this one. She began crying, making her feel even more weak. She mentally kicked herself. 'How dare I let myself show him how weak I am!' she scowled at herself. _

_"You sadistic bastard!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, letting out some of her frustration and self-taught vocabulary. Unfortunately anyone who heard her shout also recognized her unique and admittedly melodic voice, and promptly ignored it. Rebekah was on her own, and she wasn't strong enough to get herself out of it. Sadly, she thought of Kiba and how she could really use his help right about now. One powerful Flamethrower attack would send these bad men running like headless Doduo. "You're a very bad man!"_

_"You have no idea," he whispered seductively into her ear, causing Rebekah's eyes fill with more tears at this. He was really planning on raping her, not that she knew this as she could only learn what she heard by ear and her reading was very basic. She had trouble reading words with over five letters in them. During her thoughts, the man began to get bored. His free hand slipped two fingers into the side of her underwear and yanked them down forcefully to her ankles. Rebekah let her head drop, this was so shameful, and then her eyes shot open. 'H-h-h-his boxers!?' she stuttered. He took her chin in his hand and made her face him._

"_And now you shall suffer for all the trouble you have caused our good town. We've done nothing wrong and yet you're single-handedly closing our businesses and scaring away our tourists! We'd all be much better of if you just died!" he shouted in her face, flecking her with spittle._

_His friends nodded eagerly in their agreement and one of them even brought out a small pocketknife. Naked, cold and feeling very much afraid for her life, Rebekah felt a warm trickling feeling on the inside of one of her legs. She had wet herself… This seemed to greatly amuse the men, who began chuckling in a sinister way. Rebekah closed her eyes and waited, hoping that they would be merciful and finish her quickly. She was not disappointed as she suddenly felt a great tearing pain. However, it was also accompanied by some kind of force, causing her to bounce slightly. The pain was so intense! Rebekah's eyes opened from the shock of it and she was greatly disturbed by what she saw. The man had his… she didn't know what it was called and she didn't care but he was thrusting it within her and she could see blood running down it and her legs. She was ashamed and felt her mind break when the pain began to be replaced with a much more potent feeling of pleasure. She tried to hold back the moans that were instinctively escaping her lips but it was very difficult… until the pocketknife she had seen earlier entered her field of vision once more. Even while being thrust into, the man managed to turn Rebekah around and force her hard against the alley wall, causing her chest and the right side of her face to be pressed against the rough stone, scraping them with each new movement. Rebekah's breasts were scratched and bleeding from the abuse she was receiving and she could feel the pocketknife drawing scratches into her back, causing more tears and choked sobs of pain. Rebekah could no longer hold back and felt herself go limp as her mind shut down. This startled the men but they went with it and soon there was one man thrusting into her badly bruised, twelve-year old pussy, and one of them pumping into her ass. Meanwhile the others hurt or caressed whatever else they could reach. Each man took turns at everything until they were spent after a few hours. Once they were all suitable dressed they spat on the comatose young girl lying in a puddle of her own blood, sweat and cum, combined with their own semen. As they left, none of them looked back…_

_**End Flashback I want you all to know that I feel extremely bad for writing this but it needed to happen, despite making me feel like a right bastard**_

"After that day I managed to steal some clothes and left that town, wandering until I found my pokemon friends, including Kiba again… we traveled around, learning new things until one day I was caught stealing from a bakery. They chased me into the forest you found me in and set it alight, hoping to 'kill the monster' as they had shouted. Then you guys found me and rescued me… despite being immune to flames I need to breathe and the smoke would probably have killed me eventually," Rebekah finished up, her face soaking with newly shed tears of anger and shame. "I owe you my life Angel and I will do all in my power to help you complete your dream."

Angel herself was stunned completely silent. Her image of the good of people was irrevocably shaken like a bead in a tumble drier. Even Jake was shocked into speechlessness. The only sound that could be heard was the ticking of the clock on the far wall and the creak of wood as Sabre's grip on the table edge tightened even more. Rebekah wiped fiercely at her tears but she could do nothing to reduce the puffiness of her eyes. As she began to see clearly again she noticed that there were more than her, Jake, Angel and Sabre present. Ash, Gary and Mizu were also there and when she listened closely she could hear soft sobbing coming from upstairs. Obviously May had been with them but couldn't listen to the entire story. No one moved for the longest time until Rebekah suddenly stood up. The movement was accompanied by the loud _'crack!'_ as the table edge Sabre had been gripping broke off in her grip. Sabre calmly took the splinters out of her palms before standing as well, leaving her half-eaten breakfast at the table, having no appetite left to finish it.

"If you all will excuse me, I'm going outside to break something," Sabre said tersely.

Rebekah watched, surprised, as Sabre went out through the back door which was actually in the kitchen, into the back garden. However, there was nothing to break that would be considered polite to Deliah and her wonderful garden so Sabre, after a few seconds of hyperventilating, let out a powerful scream of rage lasting several seconds. Rebekah was touched that Sabre felt so strongly about her past and made sure to thank her properly once she had calmed down. Looking at her other friends she noticed that they were all looking at her with varying emotions… sympathy, anger, sadness, a small amount of doubt and even a touch of pity. Suddenly Ash spoke up.

"So that's where those scars are from… I-I never knew, Beka… why didn't you tell me?" he said, his voice somewhat hoarse.

"And let you be all protective and fluffy like a brother is? Sweet but I'll be fine," Rebekah replied, her voice warm but still a little shaky.

Ash smiled a little, happy that she was still the same old big sister he'd had for several years. After all had been said and done, the day continued like normal, but everyone went out of their way to see that Rebekah was happy and enjoying herself. Sabre went so far as to ask if she'd like to learn her fighting style. This was another surprise to Rebekah, who hadn't been expecting that and asked Sabre what she meant. Sabre gave her a grin, showing off her sharper canines and began to explain.

"You're fast… very fast. But you lack style and grace. From what I saw of your attacks those few years back, you just seem to brawl with your opponents, being too fast for them to hit back. But I can teach you _how_ to hit someone, and make sure they don't get back up."

"Y-you mean _kill_ them?!" Rebekah yelped.

"No… just knock them around a lot. But even I need to be very careful with my strength," Sabre said, her eyes showing her disappointment in herself.

Rebekah saw this and decided that perhaps learning from Sabre would be good for the both of them. They were standing in an empty field at Oak's pokemon lab and were doing light stretches to warm up before beginning their training. A light breeze blew through the clearing and Rebekah found herself entranced by the way Sabre's hair fluttered in the wind, flowing like silk. Rebekah was not the jealous type but she couldn't help but envy Sabre. Even Rebekah would kill to have a body like Sabre's; powerful yet still very womanly, with wide hips but a slim waist and a very ample bosom, but also with lean and strong abs and biceps. Sabre finished doing her calf stretches and watched Rebekah carefully before she began her instruction.

"Fight me."

Rebekah was taken aback by the sudden demand.

"What? Why?" she asked, suddenly nervous.

"I need to know how you fight against someone who can actually fight back if I am to teach you anything. So come at me with the intention to hurt me, otherwise I _will_ hurt you," Sabre replied, lowering herself into a balanced combat stance.

Rebekah fidgeted for a second, not sure how to reply to that. Part of her was hurt that Sabre would say such a thing but another part of her trusted Sabre. That part became silent when Rebekah was suddenly forced to dive out of the way of a punch from Sabre, which tore a small trench into the ground from the force. Sabre immediately reacted by kicking her feet off the ground and putting her weight onto her fist before suddenly twisting into a double spinning kick. Rebekah barely jumped out of the way into a graceful backflip. Sabre spun back to her feet and rushed at where Rebekah was about to land, launching a heel drop kick from a front flip onto Rebekah's head. Rebekah reacted by crossing her arms over her skull to block the attack and as soon as Sabre's heel made contact with her arm she _moved_. If someone were to watch what followed in slow motion, they would see Rebekah calmly lift Sabre's heel up so that she began to fall in slow motion. Then Rebekah gave a mighty heave and put her all into a snap kick that launched Sabre into the air. Sabre felt a searing pain in her back from the blow but knew that there were no broken bones, thankfully. She opened her watering eyes and they contracted in fear when they registered that Rebekah was occupying the airspace above her, her right leg coming down for what would doubtlessly be a painful ax kick.

The slamming noise would cause even the deaf to wince. Sabre's breath was brutally forced out of her lungs as she rocketed back to terra firma from the force of the blow. For the second time she hit the ground at speeds that exceeded acceptable limits. Rebekah landed with a small thud behind her a second later, her legs sore from the amount of effort she had to put into that attack. Hitting Sabre was like hitting a brick wall… an exceptionally fast one that could hit back.

"Are you alright?" Rebekah asked once she reached the small crater Sabre's impact had created.

"F-fine. That was good," Sabre wheezed.

Rebekah felt bad once she saw that Sabre was actually in pain. She offered her hand out and tried to pull Sabre up when she took it but she was incredibly heavy and without Sabre's tail pushing her up too, Rebekah would've ended up on her own back. Sabre gave a great sigh of relief when she was back on her feet and gave Rebekah a glowing look, complimenting her on her quick thinking. Rebekah blushed from the look and turned her head away in embarrassment. She suddenly had the urge to poke her fingers together in a shy manner but Sabre's next words stopped her.

"You can do better."

Sabre smiled suddenly.

"Do a simple kick."

Rebekah did so, twisting her body weight into it, her leg straightening until her foot was at Sabre's head height. Rebekah remained in that position for a few seconds, still as a statue, until she lowered her leg and watched Sabre. Sabre grinned in response and did a kick of her own. She gave a small hop, barely an inch up, from the foot that would stay on the ground, her other leg coming up, her knee to her chest. Just as she landed on the lowered leg her raised leg suddenly shot forward into an unmistakable kick, which made Rebekah's hair flutter. Sabre was left slightly overbalanced and turned her fall into a second kick, which was the result of a front flip into a heel drop. Rebekah was suitably impressed by Sabre's grace. _'It's like each attack she does is designed to follow through to the next,' _she thought.

"This is what I shall be teaching you. Also, you may be fast but you aren't very graceful which detracts from your agility. You only really change direction when running if you hit something and you tend to move in a straight line," Sabre criticized lightly. However this still depressed Rebekah, as her eyes began to dim. "However your speed… is incredible. You're as fast as a speeding bullet and I'm going to make you as deadly as one, starting now!"

Even though Rebekah would soon be in a lot of pain, even though she knew this was going to be harsh, though Sabre was going to be even harsher.

She smiled.

0o0o0o0o0o0

**Later that day…**

It was time for Angel and friends to leave Pallet Town and begin their journey anew. Professor Oak, Tracey and Deliah stood before the group, each of them smiling widely. Deliah also had tears in her eyes as she watched her son and surrogate daughter go on yet another harrowing quest. This time though, they were ready. Professor Oak had taken his research into recreating pokemon attacks and created a non-lethal weapon for May to use. Her proficiency with guns wasn't very useful as it was too easy to kill a person with such dangerous weapons. So, with that in mind, Oak had managed to recreate a pressurized Air Bullet attack used by various Flying type pokemon and assembled a firearm that drew in air, compressed it to ungodly levels and fired it. It wasn't quite as fast as a normal gun but it made up for it by being completely non-lethal, as the air bullets would burst on contact with a solid object and cause large concussion damage.

"It's quite light, and it never runs out of ammo. Thank you very much Professor," May exclaimed excitedly, fingering the weapon in her hip pouch.

Professor Oak simply smiled and waved off the group of teenagers plus Sabre with a jovial shooing. Deliah and Samuel watched with a sense of sadness yet pride as the teens laughed and fell about before running off into the distance, already on their journey. Angel took up point with Sabre bringing up the very rear. Ash and May stayed in the centre and Mizu, Gary, Jake and Rebekah in pairs in front and behind those two. This formation was designed to protect the weaker members of the group while the strongest stayed at the fringes so that any encounters would have to deal with them first. The group traveled all day before taking a break near a large forest to the east of Pallet Town, in the middle of a huge grassy plain. Most were quite tired from all the traveling and were taking a break around a large lantern that one of the teens had procured from their supplies. The sky was darkening above them and at the moment the entire area was blanketed by a darkish blue tinge as night began to creep up on them. Sabre and Rebekah were chatting animatedly off to the side while Jake stared at the lantern, as if trying to derive some kind of answer from it. Angel however, was restless. Team Rocket had found them extremely quickly and they were doubtlessly still tracking them, so it was unwise to her, for them to be resting in such an open area. Angel would have preferred to stay in the cover of the forest, where the trees would provide them with protection.

"Stop worrying Angel. We can take care of ourselves," Mizu stated as she stepped up besides her younger sibling.

"I know, but we can't relax too much… and quit crawling in my head," Angel replied, a small smile tugging at her lips.

"Actually it was your eyes that gave it away. Besides, I don't need some super clairvoyant space brain to know how my sister is feeling," Mizu answered with a laugh.

Angel snorted as she tried to contain her laughter at Mizu's reply and let out a few small giggles.

"So, almighty and powerful Mizu, what are we going to do for tonight? I think we would be better off in the forest rather than out in the open like this," she declared strongly.

"True, however we're tired and we're better able to see any approaching threats as they have no where to hide from us. Plus I could easily take on any bad guy," Mizu bragged, winking at Angel.

"Oh yeah? Well I bet I could beat anyone you could, faster than you. In fact, I bet I'm stronger than you are!" Angel retorted, annoyed at Mizu's boast.

"Really? Fine then… THINK FAST!!" Mizu suddenly exclaimed.

Angel blinked as her feet flew out from under her, trailing through the air from the punch to her face from Mizu, who was grinning wildly at her. Angel tried to contain her anger but that was uncalled for! She hit the ground a few metres away and immediately rolled onto her shoulders and then flipped back onto her feet, in one fluid motion. Mizu was watching Angel carefully, looking for any weak spots in her stance she had taken. Both arms were held up in front of her, one hand further than the other, fingers open but curved like claws. Her legs were spaced apart and bent at the knees, balancing on the balls of her feet. Overall, she was in a quick and defensive stance for counterattacks. Mizu knew it was coming but what happened was not what she expected.

With a cry, Angel ploughed her right fist into the ground in front of her and released some Ice type energy into the earth under her feet. Mizu felt the ground tremor a little and leapt out of the way instinctually as a sharp spear of ice punched up from the ground where she used to be standing. As she dived, she directed her mind at Angel and knocked her to the ground with a widespread wave of psychic power. Such a technique was inaccurate and Angel would be able to dodge it now that she knew what to look for. Whenever Mizu used her powers it caused a feeling of static electricity to form in the air, and her skill at affecting a moving target was lower so the best she could do was slow Angel down. Both sisters hit the ground at the same time, and their friends finally noticed what was happening.

"Angel's fighting Mizu!" Ash declared excitedly, rushing over to watch.

When everyone else heard they too scrambled over and Ash immediately made a bet with Jake on who the winner would be. Jake was about to reply when a sudden blast caused the earth to tremble below them and knock the teens off balance. As they looked up they were shocked to see Angel and Mizu in the air, crashing into each other with amazing force. Mizu's metal reinforced skeleton prevented broken bones while Angel created ice armor over the colliding areas just before impact. They crashed together and rebounded three more times before Angel tried a different tactic. Calling power to her finger tips she held her hands out, fingers pointing at Mizu.

"_**Rapid Ice Needle!!" **_she cried.

Her fingers began to glow a bright cyan for a brief second before a streaming wave of razor sharp ice shards flew like bullets at Mizu. Mizu spun in the air, one of her mech wings rotating over her shoulder as she did so. With a quick whirring sound, parts of it snapped together into a round plate, like a shield. Angel's ice needles stood no chance and shattered on impact, causing her to release her attack. Using the reprieve, Mizu tried one of her own attacks. She began to suck in air at an alarming rate, her chest swelling impressively, which made some of the more 'active' males below blush heavily… even Sabre and Rebekah were affected as they became jealous. All these notions stopped when Mizu exhaled. A screeching like the wail of a banshee rent the air around them and everyone had to hold their ears in pain. Angel, to whom the attack was directed, tried to stem the blood coming from her perforated eardrums, which still managed to recognize the attack.

"_**Psychic Scream!" **_

Angel put her fingers in her ears and with a quick, cold jolt; she was able to plug up the damage with a small sheet of ice, which would also aid in healing her ears. It also allowed her to hear clearly again, but her head was still extremely sore and her vision was slightly blurry. Mizu followed up on her advantage by flying at Angel in an unmistakable tackle. Angel was having none of this and with a small flap of her wings; she lifted slightly above Mizu and grabbed her passing wrists. Mizu's charge caused Angel to flip slightly while holding her wrists, which she accelerated and turned into a downwards throw into the ground below them. Angel then cupped her hands and began charging her next attack.

"_**Blizzard Ball!"**_

This attack was quite different from the normal Ice Ball move that Ice-Types learned as it was not solid. Angel charged pure ice element power between her hands and compressed it into a small ball that was protected by a thin shell of ice and launched at the target. It burst on contact and usually flash-froze what it hit. Angel completed her attack in about one second and wasted no time in throwing it at where Mizu was. However, as it flew, it seemed to get slower and slower. It completely stopped in time to lightly press against Mizu's outstretched hand as she stood up to glare at Angel. With her mind's power, she flung the Blizzard Ball right back at Angel, who managed to avoid it with a quick horizontal spin. Both sisters then spread their wings wide and, amazingly, launched the same attack at each other.

"_**Razor Wind Wave!!" **_they exclaimed.

A great wind blew from two different directions, tearing large gouges into the ground and causing cuts to appear over Angel and Mizu. They were light however and did nothing to distract the two from their battle. However, when Mizu let her claws out, Jake decided he should step in before Angel or Mizu got hurt… much more than they already were. Mizu launched herself into the air with a blast of psychic power from her feet, her tail whipping in the wind behind her as she aimed to stab Angel with a clawed fist. Angel's eyes widened in fear as her sister came close enough so that Angel could see the blankness in her eyes. Did Mizu even recognize her at the moment? However, before Angel could feel sharp steel in her gut, a blur appeared in front of her and with a sickening squelch, Mizu was stopped by punching her fist into Jake's stomach, her claws easily penetrating his skin. Angel nearly cried out in shock but stopped herself when Jake winked at her.

"Mizu… stop this," he said clearly.

"NO!! They must be destroyed!!" Mizu yelled angrily, shocking everyone.

"Who must be destroyed?" Jake questioned.

"The Cipher syndicate!" Mizu's eyes were wide with rage as she said the words. "They did _this_ to me!!"

Gary immediately knew what Mizu was talking about, having examined her mech wings before. Also, they had apparently tried to increase her psychic powers by stimulating the DNA strands she had inherited from Espeon. This had caused her to form the large, fluffy cat ears and a tail, which for some reason wasn't forked. Gary knew that Mizu had enjoyed being quite indistinctive among pokemorphs, but apparently this Cipher organization had ruined all that. Mizu was now nearly foaming at the mouth and clawing the air in front of her, over Jake's shoulder towards Angel, who was trembling slightly. _'Why is Mizu attacking me? Doesn't she recognize me anymore?'_ she thought, her heart growing colder. _'She's nearly lost her mind… those experiments on her DNA must have weakened her psyche… that's it…'_

"**Enough…**" Angel said suddenly, her voice so cold that her breath crystallized in front of her.

Mizu stopped, as if Angel was controlling her. Angel's eyes were glowing brightly in the darkening light and her face was the picture of frozen rage. Calmly, almost lazily, she pulled an arm up and punched Mizu in the face with a sickening _crack_! Most people winced from the noise as Mizu was thrown to the ground below, her arm being pulled violently from Jake as she went, while he began to mend himself as soon as it left his torso. Mizu left a small trench in the ground from the force she struck it with. Angel gently but swiftly descended after her and landed; kneeling over her chest and pinning her to the ground with both arms, making sure she didn't get back up again.

"Mizu, look at me!" she commanded, her voice still slightly cold.

Mizu gave her a dirty look but conceded, looking Angel right in the eye. What happened next shocked everyone, even the normally stoic Jake. Without warning, Angel suddenly captured Mizu's lips in her own in a warm kiss. Mizu's eyes widened in surprise but she made no move to break away as Angel hugged her closer. Rebekah felt herself get slightly warmer as she watched, embarrassed and somewhat curious as to why Angel was kissing her sister. Sabre just grinned and shrugged, not really concerned as to Angel's crazy tactics. After almost half a minute, Angel pulled back with a gasp and she and Mizu both began to pant lightly. However, Angel managed to recover enough to say what she was trying to get across.

"I love you Mizu. Never forget that," she puffed, her eyes shining with something Mizu didn't quite recognize.

Mizu had to bite back tears as she realized what she had almost done to Angel. She had nearly murdered her own sister, who she too loved very much. If Angel had shocked her to her senses, she might have done something drastic or her powers may have gone out of control. With a heave, Angel and Mizu both stood up again, hugging each other close. Despite Mizu being the older sister, Angel was now taller than her by about an inch, which made her want to pout slightly. Most of the males around them were trying to plug the nosebleeds the almost erotic scene had caused and Jake seemed rather red in the face. Mizu pulled away slightly from Angel and grinned a little, showing off her feline fangs that put even Sabre's to shame.

"I so would have kicked your ass," she giggled.

Angel gave Mizu a playful slap on the shoulder and laughed too, happy that she had become herself again. The team eventually managed to get things together and Mizu agreed at last that they would be better off camping in the woods, instead of in an open field. They trekked on, trying not to disturb any pokemon around them as they moved, as the area had a Beedrill nest in it somewhere. Eventually Angel found a small clearing that she liked, and she called everyone to set up camp. Ash, Gary and Jake were tasked with setting up the tents they had with them. However they only packed four in total so they would have to share. Ash and May immediately paired up and Angel sighed, knowing that it would be futile to argue.

"Fine, fine… but if I'm kept awake then I am so gonna give you _both_ a cold shower when you wake up," she threatened, her red eyes flashing dangerously.

Ash and May blushed at the insinuation and quickly retired into their own tent, before anyone else could jab at them. Angel gave Jake a sly wink and he snickered a little. The other four knew that Angel and Jake would sleep together however Sabre was torn. She was used to sleeping with, or at least in the same room as Angel. There had been times in her captivity that they had been too tired to get to their different beds and so had crashed on Sabre's extra large bed together. Now Sabre had Gary, Rebekah and Mizu to choose from. She was suddenly snapped from her thoughts when Rebekah tapped her elbow.

"W-would you mind if we shared a tent Sabre? Gary and Mizu want to stay together… _I think they like each other_," she added in a whisper.

"I HEARD THAT!!" Mizu yelled from her tent.

"SHUT UP!!" Angel whined from hers.

Suddenly the small camp was silent and all that could be heard was the rustling of undressing or the heavy breathing of those who had already fallen asleep. Sabre smiled slightly and let Rebekah in first, before crawling in after her. The tent was quite spacious but Rebekah soon realized that Sabre's size would be a problem as she was larger lying down than she seemed when standing, as was normal due to the force of gravity. There were two sleeping bags inside but Sabre had trouble getting into hers and she hadn't gotten undressed at all yet. Rebekah pointed this out and with a sigh, Sabre took off her combats and top, leaving herself in nothing but her panties, to which Rebekah had to look away with a red face.

"Sorry," Sabre amended when she noticed.

With a quick shuffle, she managed to pull on an old t-shirt, which was actually baggy on her. Rebekah sighed with relief at this and began to change as well, however she was wearing a bra and so she stayed in her underwear. Sabre couldn't help but notice that they were black and slightly lacy, which contrasted with Rebekah's smooth and rather pale skin. As she moved, Sabre could suddenly see her back and nearly yelped in surprise. Marring her perfect skin was a horrible scar that ran from her right shoulder to the middle of her back, with small ones littered around it. Her left leg also had some scar tissue and her arms were also lightly scarred. However, they were slightly hard to notice due to how pale she was but Sabre saw them all and it made her sad. But she was also proud… proud that Rebekah wore those scars like marks of honor. Rebekah noticed Sabre's intense gaze and seemed to shrink down.

"Yeah… these are my scars…" she said softly.

"I… didn't realize there were so many," Sabre replied quietly.

"… I hate them…" Rebekah said simply.

"What?"

"People like those who gave me these scars. I hate them all," Rebekah answered, her voice growing hard.

Sabre seemed to relax and gently put her hands on Rebekah's shoulders. Rebekah tried to shy away but Sabre's grip was soft yet firm. Slowly, almost lovingly, she pulled Rebekah into a small hug, which Rebekah soon relaxed into and snuggled up into Sabre's soft and warm arms. With a contented sigh, Sabre lay down with Rebekah, ignoring the separate sleeping bags and wrapped her tail around Rebekah's waist for extra comfort.

"Rebekah?" she asked suddenly.

"Mmm?"

"I think you're beautiful, scars or not…"

Rebekah's eyes snapped open again and suddenly she was sitting up, a few inches away from Sabre. Her eyes began to water and Sabre suddenly knew she had said something she shouldn't have. Or at least that was what she thought… Rebekah was remembering the many times Jimmy had complemented her, held her and seemed to love her. All of it made her want to burst into tears again, but she didn't let them fall, despite her shaking shoulders. She glanced at Sabre through tearful eyes and saw the hurt there, staring back at her. _'Sabre does seem to care about me… she's different. Maybe… maybe she can love me?'_ she thought hopefully. _'She's been very kind and patient with me… she's beautiful and funny and smart and… and I love her… I love Sabre.'_

"Rebekah, I'm so-," Sabre began, wanting to apologize.

"I love you," Rebekah blurted out, interrupting her.

Sabre stopped in shock. She hadn't expected that.

"I-I'm sorry, what?" she asked.

Rebekah knew there was no backing out now, so she said it again, stronger than before.

"I love you Sabre… I love you."

Images of Kiara flashed through Sabre's mind, of how she sacrificed herself to try and save everyone she cared about by ending Team Rocket. Sabre still didn't know exactly what happened but she was sure that Kiara did what she did because she loved her… but still, she left Sabre all alone again. Sabre allowed a single tear to leak out the corner of her eye as she stared at Rebekah, who was watching her hopefully. It took no more than two seconds for Sabre's lightning fast brain to process, consider, and deliver her response.

"I don't know what to say… I've never felt this before…"

Rebekah seemed close to tears again at this.

"But if you love me, then I want to love you too," Sabre added. "Because you are a precious person to me."

With that, she sealed her statement by giving Rebekah a soft kiss like she had seen Angel give to Mizu. It lasted no more than a second but it made a warm feeing explode from within her and Sabre suddenly felt the need to do it again. She held herself back though and settled for pulling Rebekah backing into her furry embrace and sinking down to sleep. Rebekah gave a small smile as she felt Sabre's body heat permeate her own and make her feel even warmer inside. With Sabre's ample bosom as a pillow, Rebekah felt as though she was in a warm, soft bed and fell into a comfortable slumber, dreaming of black eyes, red lips and a certain lightning bolt tail.

Meanwhile, in Angel's tent…

"Jake… can I ask you something?" Angel said softly.

"Of course," Jake replied, his grey eyes shining with a warm light that always managed to make Angel smile.

"What Rebekah told us this morning… it got me thinking… well, we're in a lot of danger, in more ways than one. I don't want to be kidnapped and have what happened to her happen to me… would you, take me? Here, as I am?" Angel asked him, her voice faint and nervous.

Jake was taken aback by her request. She wanted to have sex with him, now? While Jake admitted freely to himself that he loved Angel more than anything, he wondered if this was really a wise course of action. But when he looked into Angel's eyes and saw the pleading look within her blood red orbs he knew he couldn't deny her.

"Of course Angel, I love you," he said simply.

Angel smiled gratefully and reached behind her to unclasp her bra; however Jake's hands pushed hers away.

"Allow me," he offered with a wink.

Angel flushed but allowed him to as he expertly managed to unfasten her bra and slowly pull it away from her and off her arms. Angel's naked breasts fell out into the open and her nipples began to harden due to the crisp night air. Jake blushed at the sight of them but Angel seemed to be overcoming her nervousness. With steady hands, she took Jake's in her own and guided them to her size 34DD breasts and laid them on, enjoying the warm feeling of his hold. Jake gave them an experimental squeeze and Angel shifted slightly with pleasure. He continued doing so and Angel found her hands going towards Jake's waistband and into his boxers. Suddenly Jake grabbed her hands and pulled them out of his underwear. Making sure they went nowhere, he pushed her up against the side of the tent and secured them with his own. He stared deeply into her eyes, his glow rivaling her own in intensity.

"Taking the initiative are you? Ja-" Her words were blocked off by his own mouth being placed onto hers. His tongue licked her lips before passing through them, locking with her own tongue. Letting go of her arms, they wrapped around his neck as he let his own explore her body. "Mhmm!" A muffled moan tried to escape but to no avail, which was fortunate as someone may have heard.

His hands slid up her legs, then her gently across her stomach, making her moan even more. They finally reached their target as he cupped her breasts, weighing them in his hand. He finally parted with her mouth, both panting for breath. Not letting her pleasure and his fun end, he threw off her robe and started massaging her large mounds. Seeing that her nipples were already hard, he took one in his mouth and started to suck on it. She moaned in pure pleasure and his tongue grazed it every so often while his other hand caressed her other breast. Making sure each got the proper attention, he took the other in his mouth while he rubbed and pinched the other, and making her moan even more if it was possible.

Jake started to lick his way up her chest, and sucked on her neck while his hands never left her breasts. "It's...It's too much, uhn!" He took her into another passionate kiss, this time dragging her tongue in his mouth. After what seemed like an eternity, one of his hands left her breasts and slowly made its way down, and now started to rub against her inner thigh, which started to go even further as he started to massage her clit through her white cotton panties. She must have been extremely turned on due to how wet she was, as her underwear was getting sodden. With a small growl, he pulled off the offending piece of clothing and Angel was revealing to him in all her naked glory. Jake was surprised to see that her pussy was completely bare, without even a hint of pubic hair, to which Angel replied.

"It just never grew… I guess because of my DNA."

Jake didn't mind and decided that it was time for him to fulfill his end of the arrangement. With less subtlety as he had used in undressing Angel, he simply slid his boxers off and Angel's eyes went wide… he was tiny! Jake sniggered at Angel's reaction and before her eyes; his dick began to swell… and swell… and swell… until it was around nine inches long and around two inches thick. Angel was suitably impressed and had to wipe a small string of drool from the corner of her mouth. With a sly smile, Angel pushed Jake down and leaned over him, kissing him deeply on the mouth. Her silky smooth skin rubbed up against his cock, teasing him even further. "Oh, you poor thing..." He now found himself with his goddess riding him and soon looked like he created the word sad. However it was soon replaced as instead of her stomach up against him, it was now cushioned between her two breasts. Lightly bouncing up and down, her breasts strode up his shaft and back down again, while every time it was in reach, she would curve her tongue around the head, making him gasp out. It continued on for more minutes, Jake not giving up. Eventually Angel decided to take more drastic measures and when her mouth came in reach again, she didn't go back up but continued downwards, taking his big cock into her mouth.

With a slow, exaggerated movement, she slid her mouth, and hand just in front of it, up and down his long shaft, enjoying the throbbing feeling it gave off as she gently sucked. Jake groaned and grabbing Angel's breasts, causing her to squeak in surprise, which turned to a moan of ecstasy as he began to caress them with loving hands. The vibrations caused by Angel's moan caused his cock to twitch a little and Jake decided to even the playing field. Angel nearly protested but remembered that she had a mouthful of cock but her annoyance was cut off as Jake started to finger her clit. Angel moaned and began to bob her head on his cock in time with his strokes and soon both were panting as they reveled in the sensations they were experiencing. However Angel was starting to get impatient.

"How're things on your end?" she asked as she finally released his wet member.

"Perfect, are you ready love?" He whispered gently as he moved back up and nibbled on her ear.

"Ummm…yes please…" She said between moans.

"Well then lets go," he whispered as he positioned himself and slowly he pulled his fingers out, licking them clean before placing one hand on the small of her back and the other on her hip.

He slowly began to enter her as he held her up by her back and her legs instinctively wrapped around his waist. Feeling her tight, warm flesh molding itself around his very hard member almost drove him over the edge, but he calmed himself down and tried to keep it slow but he could see the tears streaming from her closed eyes. _'Damn it all, I didn't want to hurt her, I knew this would happen,'_ he thought as he tried to find a way to make it better. _'Fuck this really hurts! I knew this would happen but I can't ask him to stop…'_ Angel thought at the same time.

"Angel I…" Jake began.

"NO! It's ok, I knew it would hurt I just wasn't prepared," she exclaimed as she gave him the best smile possible at the moment.

"I know what can make it better but it will hurt like hell," he said, remembering from various sources and transformations.

"Go for it, I trust you," she said warmly, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him as she braced herself.

And so, one quick powerful motion Jake thrust himself into her and held onto her as she dug her nails into his back and cried out. He waited until she stopped crying and motioned for him to start before slowly moving himself in and out of her, as the pain slowly ebbed away with each thrust and her sobs were replaced with soft moans of pleasure as she locked her fingers in his hair and moved her body to match his slow but passionate movements.

He moved his head next to hers again and began to nibble on her ear causing her to moan louder and for him to start thrusting with more force, faster and faster, building a new feeling of pressure in her, driving her wild as she begged him end this pleasurable rapture. Jake, not wanting to finish before her, gave her one last hard trust before feeling her body begin to contract around his own causing him to cum right along with her as she muffled a scream into his shoulder and left small nail marks where she was holding onto his back before falling limp into his arms.

"You ok down there?" he asked as he lay her down and propped himself up over her, panting and sweating but quite happy none the less.

She merely nodded as her eyes started to flutter closed and she started to drift off, but not before clinging onto him the minute he lay down. She wanted to stay awake but ever part of her body screamed for rest, and as she felt him pull her closer she finally gave in. Jake, with a mental command, killed off the seed that was left inside Angel so that they would avoid an unwanted pregnancy. As it was Jake didn't know what the result would be if he and Angel tried to conceive. He left those thoughts and turned to Angel, as she panted heavily.

"Take a break love, there's plenty more where that came from…" he said as he started to drift off himself, for once actually tired.

"Love you," he added softly as he kissed her forehead.

"I love you too…" she whispered before passing out.

Jake just thanked the heavens he remembered to erect a sound blocking barrier around their tent or the whole camp would be awake.

**The next morning…**

Angel awoke with a start, as she had done for almost three years now, at exactly the same time as always. The first light of the morning was shining behind the flap of her tent, illuminating the small area she and Jake occupied. Hearing Sabre waking up in a similar fashion, with a squawk of protest from Rebekah, Angel decided it would be best to get cleaned up and dressed. Feeling as though a large weight had been moved off her, Angel grabbed her pack and left quickly, to avoid being seen running for a nearby private area in the buff. When she found a suitable place, she set up a glowing Water Pulse and hung it like a disco ball from a tree branch, which caused it to start raining like a mini storm cloud. Angel wasted no time in cleaning herself up, knowing that Jake would already be clean and dressed by the time she got back. As she began to pull on her clothes she noticed something… none of the birds were singing. In fact, it was silent…

A sudden feeling of dread washed over her, colder than the shower she'd just had.

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**Done, and done. What did you guys think of that? I laid up quite a few hints into Rebekah swinging the other way in quite a few previous chapters but hopefully many of you didn't see it coming. As for Angel and Jake, well Jake is like… ageless while Angel is around 17 so its all fair. Hopefully you beloved readers of mine** **enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next installment, which I estimate should take about a week or two, depending on my workload. But anyways, the cliffhanger is gonna be a good one and none of you will guess what's going to happen next! :3**

**Yours insincerely but trying, Kgmck177**

**PS: If someone could tell me how to receive reviews in my email again, I'd really appreciate it. **


	35. Chapter 35: Things To See, People To Do

**Dark Angel**

**Hello once more fans and welcome to the next instalment of the epic "Pokemon: Dark Angel"! Today's chapter is not about to be disclosed in this here Author's Note so tough luck, you'll have to keep reading, ha!**

**Angel: What are you on?**

**Me: Nothing much… well... maybe a little... YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY!!!**

**Whatever, anyways yes and thank you for all your reviews and yes, I have checked my account settings and everything seems to be working, I just don't receive the reviews in my hotmail inbox… everything is set to enabled and the email address is correct… screw that! Let get on with the show! Finally I would like to sincerely apologize for the huge waiting time you guys have put up with so am gonna try to make this the best chapter yet! As a belated Christmas and Valentine's Day gift… Possibly Easter too, I dunno if I'm really late or not. But too all you loyal reviewers/readers, I'd like you to know that I'm currently working on some artwork for Dark Angel depicting the entire team, post-time skip so that you guys can see just how much I love my characters. If you want them in a specific pose or shot then speak up before I get really into it.

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**Chapter 35: Things to See, People to Do**

Angel shivered, but it was impossible for it to have been caused by cold. She was the very embodiment of cold, in body if not in spirit and the water was her creation. The silence around her was deafening to her ears; as even on the space station, when she couldn't hear any sounds of life besides her and Sabre's breathing, there was always the steady thrum of the stations power systems. Now, there was nothing... even the Bug pokemon had fallen silent in the woods behind her. Angel felt a tingling on the back of her neck, like she was being watched. She immediately went on full alert and readied herself to react to anything that seemed threatening.

Angel turned and dived to the side, just in time to dodge… nothing?

The frost lass (get it?) looked around warily, expecting something to jump out of nowhere to attack. She needed to get back to her team and warn them of potential danger. Throwing caution to the winds, Angel dashed off into the trees and made her way swiftly back to the camp. Even without Rebekah's or Sabre's strength, she was quite fast on her feet and made it in under a minute, despite the stream being half a mile away. As she neared the camp, the sound suddenly turned back on and Angel nearly jumped in shock at the sudden noise from all around her. Something strange was going on and she didn't know what it was… maybe she was just imagining things?

"Hey Angel! Did you go for a bath or something?" came Sabre's jubilant exclamation as she and Rebekah clambered out of their tent.

Right behind them was Jake, Mizu and Gary… while Ash and May were still snoozing in the early hours of the morning. Angel nodded and sighed inwardly, she was being paranoid, she realised. After having to watch her back for nearly three years in isolation from most of her friends she was beginning to see danger signs everywhere.

"Don't worry about it. The water's too cold anyway," Angel replied.

Immediately Jake, Rebekah, Sabre and Mizu knew something was wrong. Angel never found water to be cold, being that her normal body temperature was around five degrees Celsius. Gary however, just nodded as if he accepted the reply, not knowing enough about her to see that something was bothering her. Mizu gave her a grin before beginning to pack up the tents that were vacated the easiest way she knew how… by using telekinesis! Gary watched in amusement as she attempted to fold the sleeping back with her mind but even with her great control she couldn't control several objects to that degree at once. Sighing to himself he walked over and began to assist her manually, missing the blush that appeared on her cheeks. Meanwhile, Sabre was waking Ash and May up for the new day while Rebekah looked around the perimeter. Jake sidled over to Angel who had sat on a tree stump and seemed to be lost in thought.

"Something wrong?" he asked bluntly, yet in a soft voice.

"N-no, it's nothing…" Angel replied weakly.

"Come on Angel. Tell me what's bothering you," Jake urged gently, not willing to let her deal with any problem alone.

"Do you feel anything off?" Angel asked suddenly.

"What? No, everything seems fine," Jake replied.

"Exactly! I just had this _feeling_ earlier… a sense of dread and fear like no other. Something bad is going to happen Jake and I'm worried," she replied.

Jake frowned slightly at this and began to think. He knew that both Angel and Mizu already had latent psychic powers much like the Gym leader Sabrina but he wasn't sure if Angel would be able to manifest hers at all due to her DNA being a hash-brown of human and pokemon strands. Perhaps she'd had a premonition or some sort of clairvoyant warning? He wasn't able to accurately guess without more information based on Angel's 'feeling', but all the same he felt he should support her concerns.

"Well I'm not going to dispute your feeling just because I can't sense anything. Don't worry love, we'll be extra careful."

'_Did Jake just call me "love"?' _she thought. _'He always calls me by my name…'_

Just as Ash and May were climbing out of their tent, they watched in confusion as Angel punched a spear of ice through Jake. Not worried (he must have done something to piss her off), they started to pack up but stopped when their danger senses started screaming. 'Jake' burst into a cloud of smoke and Angel fired an Ice Bolt into a nearby tree, causing a figure to jump down. The figure appeared to be male, covered in black camoflague clothes. He was tall and moved with grace and precision that showed him to be a serious threat.

"I'm surprised," the figure spoke in a muffled but decidedly manly voice. "You saw through my illusion."

Angel grimaced.

"Where's Jake?! Answer me and you might yet live!" she called threateningly.

"The polymorph? I drugged him with a type of toxin that stops the transformation process temporarily, meaning he is useless to you now," the man replied casually.

'_He must be extremely confident of his abilities to freely give away such important information,' _Angel thought.

"What do you want from us?" she asked evenly. Might as well give him the chance to give up peaceably…

"The Rocket Organisation has called for your termination. You and your companions are a serious threat that must be dealt with. As such, I am here… to kill you," he stated in an offhand way.

"You sound very confident for just a man…" Angel taunted.

This seemed to anger the person, if the tightening of their fists was anything to go by. Their voice deepened in controlled rage as they replied.

"I am more than what any mere human could hope to be. I am more than any of you _half-breeds_ as well!" he exclaimed viciously.

Now Rebekah was normally a peaceful girl. She was energetic, always moving and loving a good laugh. In a fight she tried to pull her supersonic punches to prevent any permanent damage. However, when words began to fly, nothing angered more than being called a 'half-breed'. She could literally feel her blood pressure rise as her (new fact!) two hearts began to pump faster. Sabre glanced at Rebekah and noticed the large tick on her forehead. Sabre herself was unaffected by the man's insults, but seeing Rebekah in such a state worried her.

"You don't look too happy…" she murmured, and Rebekah heard this.

"I gu-ga-de-du-du fuck! OF COURSE I'M NOT HAPPY!" she screamed.

With a shout, Rebekah vanished in a blur of motion straight at the "man", her lessons with Sabre forgotten in her anger. She started with a jump kick that would have crushed his face, had the man not somehow blocked the monstrously strong hit. Rebekah growled and vanished again, reappearing at his left side with a right hook to the face. Once again she was blocked and she began to grow more irritated as all her attacks were unsuccessful. Suddenly she jumped in the air as Sabre punched the ground, sending a wave of earth rushing at the black figure. He gave them a bored look with his visible grey eyes and seemingly melted into thin air. Rebekah landed on the ground and immediately the air began to heat up as she focused her energy into her next move.

"**Heat Wave!" **she cried.

With a roaring sound like rushing wind down a tunnel, a burning orange ring of expanding energy burst from her form. The wave stopped short of Angel and the others but the radius was large enough to locate their assailant, who had yet to attack them. Rebekah rushed him once more, dirt and dust being kicked up with each step she took. With her speed increasing rapidly, she lashed out at almost 20 hits a second yet none of them seemed to connect with her target. Rebekah became so frustrated that she jumped back and started launching blasts of fire from her hands. With speed and agility impossible by average human standards, the figure was able to avoid each and every attack. Angel decided that she had to intervene before their attacker made good on Rebekah's openings and launched a wave of razor sharp icicles from her fingertips. She followed it up immediately with a breath of arctic winds, which caused the shards to speed up and also to slow the figure down.

"Gotcha!" Angel cried when a single icicle hit, only for the attacker to burst into smoke and vanish like the fake Jake had done.

"What is going on here?" Sabre shouted. "Where'd he go?!"

"I dunno but let's get out of here and find Jake!" Angel replied.

"… I'm here."

Angel turned to find Jake dragging his feet towards them, looking a little worse for wear. His eyes were dulled and his movements were sluggish, as if he was extremely tired. Angel rushed to him and hit him in the face, causing a sharp protest before she grinned and wrapped him with a hug before she and the others packed up and left the area, making sure to keep an eye out for any potential hostiles. However, they didn't get very far though before the mysterious attacker from before showed up once again in their path. Angel grit her teeth and summoned her power over ice to coat the entire area with a thin layer of ice, causing anyone dumb enough to stand on it, to slip in a rather painful fashion. Their attacker, who had yet to be named, raised an eyebrow at this and tried to walk forward, only to slip. With a scowl he stood up and remained where he was, thinking that Angel and her friends would have the same problems.

"Behind you!"

He turned around, only to receive an ice-armoured fist to the face, courtesy of Angel. Their attacker was sent hurtling back, towards Rebekah who used the ice to her advantage and began spinning rapidly on the spot. She became a small twister of movement and fire began to engulf her arms and legs, but for some reason it couldn't melt Angel's ice. Just before the attacker collided with Rebekah, she stopped spinning suddenly, one of her legs stuck out stiffly, flames trailing behind it as it tore through the air like a comet. The change in momentum caused her leg to swing round much faster than she could have done on her own, the flames engulfing the outstretched limb.

"**Fire Style: Accelerator Tornado!" **she cried.

The kick caused a loud crunching sound as it hit, causing everyone to wince or cringe at the noise of bones breaking. However, their attacker was not done yet. He grabbed Rebekah's outstretched leg as he began to fly away with the force of the hit and managed to turn it into a heavy throw, hurling Rebekah at a large tree. Rebekah spun limply threw the air, unable to counter and closed her eyes. The feeling of hard, unforgiving nature which she was expecting was instead replaced by some warm and fluffy around her waist.

"I got ya!" Sabre declared, grinning.

Sabre's eyes had easily followed Rebekah's movement and her tail had reached out and snagged Rebekah as she flew by, setting her gently on the ground. Sabre winked at her and turned her attention to their attacker, who had decided to try and retreat. Even May was shocked at how suddenly she became deadly serious. With a touch of anger in her eyes, Sabre gave a shout and leapt at their attacker swinging her arm out in a standard right hook. The man simply leant backwards, letting the arm pass overhead, but he did not account for the tail, which was glowing with a silvery sheen, to follow and smash into his side.

"**Iron Tail!"**

This hit was stronger than any before it and the force sent their assailant hurtling into the air and out of sight. Sabre let out a deep sigh and turned to the others, a small smile painted across her cheeks. Everyone else was simply astounded at the power Rebekah, Angel and Sabre possessed. They all worked together perfectly, countering each other's weakness. Rebekah's speed made up for Angel's lack of it, while Sabre's strength made up for Rebekah's and Angel's manuverability made up for Sabre's. They were quite the team in Jake's eyes and he decided that they should remain as such.

"Come on everyone we need to get out of here," Angel exclaimed, the ice she had formed shattering into a million snowflakes.

There were nods all round and the group entered a dead run, which Angel bringing up the rear to trap the enemy should he attack again. What Angel wanted to know was who sent him. He hadn't once attacked them but he was clearly threatening, if he really was a 'he'. Whatever… it was Angel knew she had to stay on guard at all times now. Ahead of her, she could see Sabre on point, with Jake, Rebekah and Mizu protecting the non-combatants in a vaguely circular formation. Hoping that today wouldn't get any worse; Angel shook her head and kept running.

0o0o0o0o0o0

_Several hours later…_

It was almost noon when Angel and the others decided to rest, having just reached a small town with sprawling fields of grass just beyond the other side. Looking around, Angel could see the burnt out shell of a shed and several felled trees. She shrugged to herself and looked over the group carefully. Jake was as stoic as ever, not even winded but Angel could still see the effects of whatever he was hit with upon him. His eyes were unfocused slightly and he was slow to react to anything. Rebekah seemed alright, but she kept looking around as if expecting another attack. Sabre was sprawled out on the ground, taking up a lot of space, which there was plenty of. Mizu… was talking to Gary? They were discussing something in hushed tones and Angel felt suddenly curious. There was a ghost of a smile playing on Mizu's lips and Gary was outright smiling. _'Does my sister have herself a boyfriend?' _Angel thought happily. _'Oh blackmail you are too kind.'_ May and Ash were also talking but they were much more open with their affections. Angel glanced at May and couldn't help but feel disappointed. May had become more selfish and suspicious as of late and her treatment of Sabre was downright shocking. Was it because Sabre used to be an animal that she knew and was friends with? Or was it that she felt threatened by how close Ash and Pikachu were before she became Sabre, who (in Angel's opinion) was a lot more beautiful. Whatever her reasons, Angel wanted them to stop before May caused a major dispute in the group.

"Is everyone feeling okay?" Sabre suddenly asked.

A bunch of "yeah" and a "whatever" floated around and Sabre nodded to herself, smiling. Angel was touched that Sabre was always so concerned with her friends' well being. Rebekah was also touched but right now she was on the verge of having a panic attack, however she did not let it show. _'Oh why did we have to come _here_? I can't believe it! Why did I not realize before? God I just want to leave, now!'_ she thought miserably. She gave a sparing glance to the burnt out shed and nearly burst into tears. She didn't notice when a large yellow hand touched her should and Sabre's compassionate eyes came into view, and so nearly jumped when Sabre spoke.

"Are you feeling alright? You're kind of pale…"

"Y-yeah, I'm okay. It's nothing, just all this running around we've done," Rebekah tried to lie.

Sabre didn't buy it one bit and her gaze became a little more focused. Rebekah suddenly felt so small, with such intense eyes burning into her own. Sabre stared for one more second before something seemed to click and she sat down next to her. Sabre passed an arm over her shoulders and Rebekah leant into her side, feeling somewhat comforted by her warmth. Not caring about the eyes that suddenly began to focus on them, Rebekah closed her own eyes and began to feel sleepy. Sabre simply smiled down at her, fully aware that she was being watched. Gently rubbing Rebekah's shoulder, she was surprised when Rebekah yawned and snuggled into her side even more.

'_It's about damn time they both found someone… but each other? I didn't see that one coming,' _Angel thought to herself. _'Not that I'm against such things but… well it _is _cute to see them like that. I guess if it makes them happy then I'm fine with it. Besides, with what Rebekah has gone through, I'm surprised she isn't downright afraid of men… wait, maybe that why she was so smitten with Jimmy! He was probably one of the only guys nice to her before and so she attached herself to him. Poor Rebekah… she just wants to be loved. But why does she seem so frightened?'_

Angel began to put things together as all the clues clicked into place. Rebekah's obvious lie, the burnt-out shed, Sabre's comforting embrace… something about this place unsettled her, when suddenly something Rebekah had told them floated to her mind. _"I lived in an abandoned shed in the woods…"_ Angel's eyes widened in horror and rage as she realized just what was wrong.

"Guys! We're leaving," Angel called out, receiving blank looks. "NOW!!!"

Everyone who wasn't standing leapt to their feet, while Sabre shook Rebekah awake gently. She slowly opened her eyes, just in time to see a stranger come into the small clearing. Her eyes shot open and she screamed before backing away rapidly, her back colliding with a tree. She trembled with outright fear as the stranger seemed to just notice her. His eyes roamed up and down before settling on her horn. His eyes widened in recognition before he turned and began to run away. Angel tried to stop him with a bolt of ice aimed at the feet but he was gone before it hit. Luckily, he hadn't noticed Sabre, Rebekah had drawn his attention with her scream before he had taken everyone in.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!!!" Angel cried in frustration. "We need to get out of here, quickly!"

"Why? What's wrong?" Ash asked, his dark eyes clouded in confusion. "Is there trouble?"

At the edge of her hearing range, Angel began to hear multiple rapid footfalls and shouting voices. Her heart sank when she realized that they wouldn't be able to get away, not with the possibility of being attacked again if they went back the way they came. Rebekah's eyes were wide and bloodshot, her entire form trembling as she too began to hear the approaching people.

"No... Not again... I don't want to be hurt... leave me alone... I want my mommy," she mumbled between dry sobs.

Sabre too could hear people approaching and if her ears were any indication she was sure there were about 15 people. Not that she couldn't take them on, but they were normal humans, non-combatants. Sabre was against causing harm to anyone who was not a threat but given how Rebekah was acting, Sabre may just be forced to break one's own rule. The wind around them began to pick up slightly, creating a dramatic tension in the air as shapes appeared in the shadows between the trees, drawing steadily closer to the group, heavy footfalls breaking the silence. Finally the mob appeared in sight, carrying spades and pitchforks and other dangerous objects. All of them were men and the sight of them drove Rebekah even further into hysteria as she began to cry pitifully, rocking back and forth.

"WHO ARE YOU?!?!" Angel shouted angrily at them.

"Who are you!? Don't you know that that is a demon?!" One of the men replied, gesturing at Rebekah.

"The only demons I can see... are you," Mizu replied coldly, her ears and tail exposed.

"Leave now, or you will be forced," Sabre added, intimidating the men with her size as she stood up fully.

The men seemed shocked by Sabre's appearance, but they quickly overcame it as they dubbed both her and Mizu 'demons' as well. One of the men was foolishly brave enough to hurl a pitchfork at Sabre. The three-pronged weapon whistled through the air. The man's aim was true and Sabre's eyes narrowed dangerously as the pitchfork stopped not a foot away from her face, hovering in midair. Everyone besides Angel was shocked by this, until Angel decided to voice out what was happening.

"Sabre here can create extremely powerful magnetic fields around her body. Though very limited in range, they are incredibly strong and can even stop most bullets. Nothing made of metal can touch her," she said proudly, enjoying the men's reactions. "Now then, seeing as you cannot hope to defeat us, I suggest you leave in peace and let us be on our way."

"We can't do that. That demon there destroyed our towns business and nearly our reputation! It took weeks after it was driven out for trade to begin again! Most of the shop owners either closed down or moved out! Now there are more of them... we can't let them near our town again. As for you lot, clearly they have you under their spell. Let us deal with them and you all can go free unharmed," the man at the head of the group said calmly.

A sudden dark chuckle made everyone freeze… Even Angel. A powerful presence began to grow around them and a suffocating atmosphere made it hard to breathe. Angel glanced back and her eyes widened in horror. Rebekah was walking forward, towards the mob. But her eyes... they were a solid blood red. Her incisors in her mouth had grown longer and more like fangs. Her hair ran wild in the wind, like a raging fire and her breathing was laboured as if she was suffocating. But worst of all was her body language. She no longer seemed afraid... no, her body still trembled, but this time... with RAGE.

"You... don't deserve to live. All my life you shunned me, beat me, hated me, for something I had no control over. You called me demon, half-breed, monster, and I was forced to eat from your trash everyday. Worst of all... when you _violated_ me, truly then... you created a monster!" she yelled angrily.

Before anyone could react Rebekah was already in the leader's face, her fist deep in his gut. With a wheeze and a dry heave he collapsed, unconscious. Rebekah looked at him in disgust before spitting on him and looking at the rest of them, barely concealed hate in her burning eyes. Her fists clenched so hard that blood was seeping from between her fingers as her nails cut deep furrows into her palms.

"I had more power than any of you or your pokemon. Every once in a while you would try and have them attack me too! But they wouldn't listen, oh no, they knew... they knew what I had gone through. You have no right to call yourselves human beings. You can threaten me all you like now, but you dragged my friends into this and now... after all these years of nightmares, torment and _anger_... now I shall have my revenge!"

"Rebekah stop!" Sabre cried out. "It isn't worth it, just leave them be. We'll run away, they won't follow!"

"THEY WON'T FOLLOW BUT MY MEMORIES WILL!!! I HAVE BEEN HAUNTED BY THEIR ACTIONS SINCE I WAS JUST A LITTLE GIRL!!! THEY RAPED ME AND BEAT ME AND MADE MY LIFE A LIVING HELL!!!" Rebekah screamed, her anger being displayed by the roaring flames that engulfed her lithe form, a hot and heavy wind blowing through the area. Twins trails of tears flowed down Rebekah's cheeks, seeming unaffected by the skin-tight inferno. "I even tried to commit suicide several times... But I couldn't give them the satisfaction of killing myself. I promised myself they wouldn't break me... but they have. They threw me into the howling dark... not wanting me to return."

With those final words Rebekah vanished in an explosion of movement. It was over in just a little past a second. There was a collective scream of pain as every single member of the mob that could be heard over the whistle of Rebekah's passage through the air. They immediately and almost simultaneously collapsed to the ground, some unconscious, others holding broken limbs and screaming. One man even had the broken head of his pitchfork sticking out of his leg. Angel nearly cried out in anguish at what her friend had just done. The speed at which Rebekah reappeared made it seem as if two transparent Rebekah's had slid sideways into each other at great speed, becoming whole once more. She was panting with exhaustion; clearly the emotional strain on her was affecting her physically as well as mentally. She looked at one man who was trying to crawl towards her, hate and violence in his eyes. Rebekah roared and ran at him, slowly for her, a fist raised to strike him down.

"STOP REBEKAH!!! PLEASE!!!" Angel yelled, tears in her eyes.

Just before contact, Rebekah froze. Angel sighed with relief... until she realised that Rebekah hadn't stopped willingly. Mizu was aiming a clenched fist in her direction, holding her in place with her powerful psychic abilities. Rebekah growled at Mizu and suddenly the air began to heat up spectacularly. Mizu's fist began to tremble as Rebekah attempted to force her body to move against Mizu's will. Mizu responded by lifting Rebekah a foot into the air so that her feet were not touching the ground, hoping it would be enough to stop her. Rebekah gave her a wild grin, wide and crazed. Her eyes were so dilated they could see the bloodshot veins around her tiny pupils.

"Sorry baby, its TWISTER TIME!!!"

A sudden force caused Rebekah to begin spinning like a top at incredible speeds, a powerful gust of wind pulling leaves and bits of dirt into the rapidly forming tornado of movement. Mizu was shaking all over as she tried to contain the kinetic energies but it was useless against Rebekah's anger. Sweat beaded down her face as her hand suddenly opened and she slumped, defeated. Rebekah landed lightly on the ground and made to move towards the village, possibly with the intent to destroy everything. As she did so, she suddenly felt something on her shoulder and everything went black. Sabre gently lowered Rebekah to the ground, making comforting sounds. A rustling noise made her snap up and she saw one of the mob looking at her in awe.

"Why did you stop her? You're a demon... don't you want to hurt us too?" he asked, confused.

The man seemed to be in his late forties, his hairs greying slightly over his receding hairline. He was ruggedly handsome in a way, as he seemed quite fit and muscular. What was perplexing was the fact that he wore a white apron over standard brown clothing. Compared to the others this man was relatively unhurt. One of his eyes were blackening and his lip was burst, plus his posture seemed to indicate some other contusions forming around his covered limbs, if the way one of his knees were shaking was an indication as he crouched on the ground.

"I am no demon... the only demons here are you _people_ for hurting such an innocent and young child. You call her a demon, yet did she do anything to hurt any of you? Did she try to kill your children as they slept? Did she set fire to buildings for the fun of it? Did she ever say she wanted to kill you?!" Sabre exclaimed angrily, her small fangs bared in a restrained fashion.

_A young redhead sitting against a wall, looking pathetically at all the smiling, laughing people before her with sad eyes. *_flash* _A small park, a young girl crying in a corner as all the children ran away from her, some throwing small stones and calling names until she was sitting all alone, with nothing but the swings and the setting sun as her company. *_flash* _A child with a horn on her head going up to a fruit vendor, her clothes in rags as she begged for something to eat, only to be smacked across the face and kicked away._

"...... No."

"Did she ever ask for help? Did she ever say she was sorry? Did she ever ask for you to stop or cry when you beat her?"

_The young girl, slightly older, was holding her hands out to a man as he looked at her in confusion, just passing through town. Another person led the man away, leaving the child to cry on the ground. *_flash* _ The young girl, called a demon by most, on her knees in front of an older woman, begging for forgiveness as the woman mercilessly beat over the head with a frying pan. Everyone else around simply watched passively, some smirking to themselves. *_flash* _A mob beating a little pokemorph as she screamed and pleaded for them to stop hurting her, to be left alone, saying she was sorry, over and ove-..._

"... Yes."

"Then you understand. You feared what you didn't understand and as a result you broke a little girl and created what you see here. She escaped, you know, she found friends... a family... us. We're going to protect her no matter what, but we aren't the bad guys. We aren't here for revenge; you can go back to your lives. We won't bother you anymore," Sabre finished her tirade, her eyes weary.

The man looked at her as if seeing Sabre for the first time. He let out a grunt of pain as he pushed himself shakily to his feet, one of his arms were shown to be dislocated, the fingers bent at unnatural angles. He slowly shuffled over to Sabre as the other members of the mob, some being conscious to hear the argument, began to fill the others in as they woke up. All of them looked incredibly guilty. The first man reached Sabre and he shakily held out his undamaged hand. Sabre was surprised at the gesture but accepted it nonetheless. Her furry hand wrapped around his gently as they shook.

"Yo-your hand is warm... soft..." The man muttered quietly, almost in amazement.

Sabre smiled warmly, seeing that maybe everything would work out... until Rebekah began to stir. Her eyes snapped open and she was on her feet faster than most could blink. She looked wildly around until her eyes focused on the mob of men in front of her. She took a step forward and stopped... not because someone was holding her with psychic power, not because Sabre had knocked her out... but because each and every man in front of her was avoiding her eyes, guilt written across their expressions. The man who had shook hands with Sabre stepped up to Rebekah, who backed away, confused and a little afraid. Her fear turned to astonishment as the man suddenly went onto his knees and bowed to her. The men behind him all followed suit while they could, those unable to move their legs much settled for bowing their heads. The man at the head of the group, his head still bowed, spoke.

"Please, accept our humblest apologies... Rebekah."

Rebekah nearly snapped in anger once more, unable to believe that these men thought a simple sorry would fix everything. Until the last word he spoke registered in her mind. Rebekah was once more floored, and tears began to build up in her eyes. The man stepped closer and _everyone_ watched with baited breath as the man put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her into an embrace. Rebekah broke down at this and her wracking sobs echoed around the clearing. As this happened, the man looked at her and began to see her for _who_ she was. _'This girl... she can't be any older than my daughter. She's just a kid...'_ the man thought, realizing just how much they had fucked her up. His shirt and apron were quickly becoming damp with tears and he simply stood there, enduring it all in the name of repentance. Everyone was touched and amazed at the spectacle until Rebekah's tears eventually subsided. She pulled away gently from the man and gave him a ghost of a smile, unable to show her gratitude clearly.

"... Thank you, Thomas..." she whispered.

"Y-you remember my name?" he asked, surprised.

"You were the baker..." Rebekah said simply, stepping back once more. "I... I need to go."

"Then go... and be happy," Thomas said, his voice strained with sadness.

Rebekah nodded briefly and as one, she and her friends turned away and walked into the woods. Unbeknownst to any of them, a pair of grey eyes watched them leave. _'It seems that I underestimated them. That girl... I see, so that's where she is from... I'll leave them be, for now...'_

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel thanked the gods above (somewhere a Legendary pokemon sneezed) that they hadn't encountered anymore creepy assassins or angry villagers when they finally reached a roadside Pokemon Centre. As soon as they booked rooms to stay in, Mizu bolted for the showers, claiming she really needed to clean herself up. May and Angel followed her at a more sedate pace, while Ash, Gary and Jake went to the male showers. This left Rebekah and Sabre alone in one of the booked rooms, sitting side by side. How long they sat there, they didn't know but they enjoyed each other's company greatly. Rebekah glanced slightly at Sabre and noticed the small smile on her lips, making Rebekah want to smile too. However, Rebekah felt that she had to say something to break the silence.

"Sabre?"

"Yes Beka?"

"Thank you... for earlier. I don't know what I'd do without you anymore."

Rebekah leaned against Sabre and sighed softly. Sabre put an arm around her shoulders and leaned her head onto Rebekah's enjoying the comfort of their embrace. Ever since Rebekah had admitted that she was in love with Sabre, the large furry pokemorph had been questioning her own feelings, trying to heads or tail of it. To her, Rebekah was young and innocent... well, maybe not innocent as that had been stolen from her at an even younger age. She cared deeply about Rebekah and her struggle to maintain her sanity after all she had been through. She was stubborn, hard-headed and sometimes too outspoken. Beneath that, however, Sabre saw that she was shy, a little timid, funny, smart, kind, passionate and loyal to a fault. All of those were admirable qualities that Sabre couldn't help but be attracted to. It wasn't so unusual among Pikachu to choose a mate of the same sex, as they reproduced simply by finding a willing and healthy male, while maintaining the partnership. From what Sabre knew about humans was that homosexuality was frowned upon in some societies and downright slandered in others. Looking down at Rebekah's flowing hair, Sabre felt nothing more than the desire to make her smile again, to make her happy in any way possible, to never abandon her and to protect her from all that would try to harm her. If that wasn't called love, Sabre didn't know what was.

"Beka?"

"Yeah... Sabre?"

"... I love you too."

Sabre was instantly on her back as Rebekah hugged her around the waist, her eyes shining with happiness. Sabre giggled and began to wrestle with her until Sabre was the one on top, straddling Rebekah's waist. Looking at the thin, almost fragile looking woman beneath her, Sabre felt an urge and leant down. Her breath tickled Rebekah's ear as Sabre closed the distance between them and kissed her softly. It felt like nothing Rebekah had ever experienced before... a warm, fluttery feeling welled up in her stomach as Sabre's soft, silky lips caressed her own. Rebekah kissed back with a passion, and snaked her arms around the back of Sabre's neck. She felt like she could stay here forever... until the door opened and they sprang apart, red-faced and breathing heavily. Angel stood in the doorway, a knowing smile at the corner of her mouth. She made a zipping motion across her mouth with her fingers, winked at them and left as suddenly as she came. Rebekah coughed awkwardly at their being caught, her face slightly red. Sabre on the other hand was surprised at how accepting Angel was. She had known the woman personally for almost 3 years and as such, they were very close. Seeing Rebekah's discomfort, Sabre decided to try and take her mind off of it.

"You know… when Ash and May first started going out, our friend Brock, the pervert… caught them on film and teased them with it for almost a week. Oh, Ash was so angry, haha! I thought May would have an aneurism or something," she exclaimed.

Rebekah chuckled quietly, looking up into Sabre's smiling visage.

"Then there was this one time, when Ash and May first met… I accidentally fried May's bicycle with a Thunderbolt!"

"What?!" Rebekah laughed. "How'd you manage that?"

"Well I'd never been to Hoenn and I got sick because of it… but it was thanks to Ash and May that I got better and May got her first pokemon," Sabre explained.

"Really? I guess with all that time as a Pikachu before hand you know a lot about Ash…" Rebekah murmured.

"Yeah… we've been into the heart of volcanoes, travelled the ocean on a Lapras, fought ridiculous enemies and even become ghosts!" Sabre added.

"Become ghosts? Oh I so have to hear this…"

"Well… it began in a place called Saffron City-…"

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel walked into the lobby and sat down on an empty couch with a sigh. She stretched gracefully and relaxed on the soft furniture as she observed the various trainers around. Some were chatting amicably, others were simply relaxing like herself, and others were outside playing with their pokemon. She watched with amusement as a little girl held a ribbon out to her Skitty and led the little cat on a merry chase, the small kitten chasing her happily with a 'Nyah!' every time it got close to catching the tantalising material. Eventually the little pink pokemon became too dizzy and flopped on the ground with a confused smile. Angel giggled quietly to herself, enjoying the sight of people and pokemon getting along, instead of people abusing and torturing pokemon to make them fight.

"Hey, are you a trainer?"

Angel turned and noticed a young teen looking at her intently, his eyes bright with exuberance.

"Maybe I am…" Angel replied, feeling a challenge coming on. It had been years since her last pokemon battle and her pokemon probably missed her terribly.

"Would you like to battle? My pokemon just got out from care and are itching to exercise!" the young man exclaimed, pumping his arm in the air.

Angel grinned and stood, allowing the teen to realise that she towered over him by almost a foot. Angel laughed at the shocked look the trainer gave her, before she walked over to the Pokemon PC, accessing her trainer data file and calling up the Pokemon Transfer program. She eyed her options and decided to bring out a full team to meet her friends again and give them some attention. She remembered Ying, her Absol that helped her catch her first Articuno, and she also remembered the second one she received as a baby. The baby one would have grown quite a bit by now. Kaminari her Linoone was still in Storage as well. She also had a Glalie and Crawdaunt, but if she had named them she couldn't remember. It was a shame that most were Water/Ice Types or Normal. However she would have to make do with strong tactics. However, Angel suddenly wondered if the pokemon she helped train on the station were still accessible by her. Seeing that it couldn't hurt, Angel logged onto the Rocket Executive Guest Account and accessed her personnel file, which also listed the pokemon that had been under her care and the Storage server they were on.

"Let's see… I have Swellow, Dewgong, Houndoom, Crobat, Steelix, Raichu, Dugtrio and an Ariados. Hmmm, I don't like Bugs so I guess I'll go with the rest," she said quietly to herself as she materialized the pokeballs containing her choices.

Once the pokeballs were secure on her old trainer belt, Angel walked out to one of the practice arenas and stood opposite the small teen, waiting patiently for him to start. It was a sunny day and there was almost no wind, making it a little warmer than Angel would have liked, especially since they were entering summer. As she waited, she wondered if she should continue her training with her pokemon. Sure, she could fight almost any pokemon one-on-one by herself but perhaps her pokemon would be an excellent support team for backup.

"Umm… shouldn't we have a referee?" the teen asked hesitantly.

"You have one."

Angel and the boy turned and spotted Ash, grinning widely at the prospect of a Pokemon Battle. Angel suddenly recalled that Ash had won the Sinnoh League and was still sharp with his pokemon battling skills. She was whisked away down memory lane, remembering Ash's dream to become a Pokemon Master and started to space out. She snapped back to reality when Ash coughed and he waved to both trainers with his arms, while he stood at the side of the battlefield in the referee box.

"This is a one on one pokemon battle between Angel and…"

"Lee. My name is Lee," the teen replied bashfully, remembering that he'd forgotten to introduce himself.

"Alright. This is a battle between Angel and Lee, trainers release your pokemon!" Ash declared, pulling his arms down sharply.

"Come out, Houndoom!" Angel exclaimed, summoning the Dark-type.

The devil dog howled and looked at Angel, its eyes widening in recognition. Angel smiled and waved to it a little, to which the Houndoom gave its equivalent of a grin. Angel had always been strict but caring to the pokemon she trained, trying to make sure that they did not become vicious machines for Team Rocket, but rather she trained them to be strong but caring and responsible. She was mostly successful but there were some cases that she couldn't help… like the Ariados.

"I choose you, Wartortle!" Lee declared in response to Angel's summon.

"Wartortle-war!" his turtle cried, looking confidently across at Houndoom.

_**Battle Situation!**_

_**Angel's Houndoom vs. Trainer Lee's Wartortle**_

_**One-on-one, no time limit. 3 pokemon each.**_

_**Begin battle!**_

"Houndoom, Quick Attack!"

Houndoom howled briefly before dashing at Wartortle rapidly, white streaks of light trailing from its body which indicated the Normal-type move. Wartortle, not to be outdone, withdrew into its shell and took the attack, sending it flying a short distance. The pokemon was unhurt however, and popped out of its shell with a cocky grin. Lee grinned in a similar fashion before calling out his counterattack. As he did, Angel was calculating how to use Houndoom's superior speed to her advantage… suddenly she had an idea.

"Wartortle, use Bubblebeam!" Lee cried.

Angel was quick to respond, shouting almost before the turtle began its attack.

"Houndoom, jump into the air!"

The Fire/Dark type complied immediately and leapt over the incoming Water attack, leaving it unharmed but open to another attack. Wartortle stopped its Bubblebeam and waited for its next instruction as Houndoom hung briefly in the air. Angel began to initiate her plan before Lee could give his next order.

"Use Skull Bash!"

Houndoom used the speed gained by its fall back to earth to rush right at Wartortle, its head lowered in a brutal melee attack.

"Wartortle, Withdraw!"

The pokemon complied and withdrew into its shell.

"Just as I planned!" Angel crowed. "Now Houndoom, throw Wartortle into the air!"

"What!?" Lee shouted.

Houndoom bit down on Wartortle's shell and tossed the pokemon into the air above it, the shell spinning away into the clear blue sky. Angel wasn't done yet however.

"Now use Hyper Beam!"

An orange ball of energy began to form in Houndoom's mouth, the vacuumed air ionizing as it powered its attack. With a growl, it launched the beam and struck Wartortle dead-on, sending it flying even higher into the sky, causing it to fall from too high a distance, knocking it out when it collided heavily with the dry earth. Angel cheered and Houndoom howled once more as Lee returned his pokemon, slightly discouraged. It was clear to him that Angel was a powerful opponent and knew her way around the battlefield. Lee decided that to win, he had to up the ante.

"Okay, I choose you, Tyranitar!" he called out.

Angel's eyes widened as the colossal Rock/Dark type materialized and looked down at her menacingly. Angel gulped and wondered how she could use Houndoom's abilities to win. However, she had no plans that would pierce Tyranitar's thick hide with enough force to assure victory. Ash decided that now was a good idea to subtly intervene and help her out.

"Let it be known that trainers can substitute their pokemon at any time so long as they have a legal combatant to switch out," he said evenly, trying not to appear to be helping Angel.

Angel sighed in relief and returned Houndoom while Lee frowned, realizing that Angel could adapt to his powerhouse. However, he was confident that his training was enough to make sure that he put up a hell of a fight. Meanwhile, Angel was wondering which pokemon could fight a Tyranitar the best. The pokemon was large and probably slow so she could use Dewgong's Ice attacks to slow it further and win by elemental advantage but if Tyranitar got in close then it was over. Besides Dewgong she had also chosen Raichu but against a Rock type there wouldn't be much damage, but Angel remembered that Raichu knew Brick Break, which would be quadrupled in damage due to elemental advantage. However she decided to try Dewgong first.

"Dewgong, come forth!"

The seal-like pokemon materialized with its patented cry. Lee grinned and ordered Tyranitar to get in close, the lumbering pokemon moving slowly like Angel had predicted. However, that wouldn't save Dewgong if it got too close so Angel ordered an Ice Beam across the entire battlefield, stopping Tyranitar cold unless it wanted to slip. Lee frowned as he thought carefully and decided on how to counter Angel's clever plan. Angel wasn't prepared when Tyranitar began using Flamethrower to melt the ice, while at the same time, continuing to Dewgong, who tried to use a Water Gun, only for Tyranitar to Mega Punch through it and begin to Thrash Dewgong into unconsciousness.

"Good job Dewgong, rest now. It's been a while since we battled together," Angel murmured kindly.

Lee was the one to cheer this time and Tyranitar smiled, pleased at its victory over an elementally superior foe.

"Alright then… Raichu, I choose you!" Angel called out her last pokemon on her line-up.

Lee's eyes bugged out and he nearly fell to the floor laughing that Angel would use an Electric type. Angel grimaced as Raichu became angry, knowing that this particular Raichu was ruthless to its foes but not overly so. However this pokemon also had a great advantage that most other Raichu did not. Angel was quick to show Lee that type meant nothing.

"Raichu, use your speed and attack with Brick Break!" she ordered.

"Rai-rai!"

Lee watched in amazement as Raichu suddenly dashed at high-speed to Tyranitar, its paw glowing an orange colour. Tyranitar was completely unprepared and fell to the powerful strike, like a Goliath versus David. Raichu then used its tail to leap back to Angel's feet, ready for the next round. Lee was amazed as just how _fast_ this woman's Raichu was. It had crossed almost 20 metres before he could utter a word. Now Lee was down to his last pokemon and he'd saved his strongest for last, hoping he'd have a better advantage than this.

"I choose Snorlax!" he cried, throwing an Ultra Ball into the field.

The giant cat-like pokemon appeared with a deep yawn, a paw idly scratching its stomach. This was not what surprised Angel though… it was that this Snorlax was _standing up_. Clearly this Snorlax was a high level if it was capable of being active. Lee gave Angel an apologetic smile before he went for the kill.

"Snorlax use Earthquake!"

Angel tried to call Raichu back to her, but the large Electric Mouse pokemon was already unconscious from the war-stomp of doom. Angel sighed and recalled Raichu, realising she only had one more pokemon left, and thanks to Snorlax knowing Earthquake, she was also at a disadvantage. Either way, she recalled Houndoom and began a frantic safety dance to avoid the tremors being sent out by the overly-active Sleeping Pokemon. _'Is this thing on steroids or something!?! There's no way a Snorlax should be able to move like that!!!' _Angel thought in shock.

"While its tired Snorlax! Use Headbutt!" Lee crowed.

"Use Overheat!" Angel countered.

Houndoom leapt back and shot a white-hot stream of flames at Snorlax, who shielded its face with one arm, while advanced in a lumbering fashion towards Houndoom. Angel nearly cried out in frustration as Snorlax jumped over the Overheat while Houndoom was too fatigued to react and delivered a swift and devastating crack to the head. Houndoom stood for a few moments, eyes blanked out, before crumpling to the dusty earth. Lee let out a victorious cheer, running up to Snorlax and jumping onto it, while it sat down, satisfied. The pokemon quickly fell asleep to Angel's amusement.

_**Battle End.  
Angel loses.**_

"That was a great battle miss. Thanks for the match," Lee exclaimed, holding a hand out.

Angel shook his hand with a polite nod, disappointed that she lost. However, her constant training had taught her '_you learn in one defeat what you can learn in a thousand victories'_. With that in mind, Angel gave lee a small smile before making her way back inside, deciding it best to return the pokemon in case Team Rocket noticed they were missing. Plus, she missed her friends and wanted to train with them again, just like she used to. After a few minutes fiddling around on the computer, Angel's belt was filled with her original pokemon team. Kaminari, Articuno, Ying, Glalie, Crawdaunt and an empty space for the future; hopefully her old partners had not forgotten about her. After a small amount of consideration, Angel decided to check up on her friends again before meeting with Jake to see where they would go next. _'Maybe I should save Rebekah and Sabre for last… who knows what I'd be interrupting this time…' _Angel thought with a slightly perverted grin forming. _'Bout damn time though… I wonder if me and Jake could do it as two women? Oh the possibilities!' _

As Angel's thoughts turned to the red light district, Ash and May were enjoying a peaceful lunch together in the cafeteria. The sight of them blushing and feeding one another drew the envy of those around them who wished they had such a relationship. Jake was also there, reading a magazine and drinking from a bottle of Fresh Water. Angel could only guess where Gary and Mizu had gone, but she had the strangest feeling that they were in one of their rooms, together. The team stayed at the Pokemon Centre for the rest of the day, deciding it was too risky to continue travelling out in the open with so few hours of daylight left. As Angel climbed into her bed that night she looked out at the stars from her window…

'_Why?'_

0o0o0o0o0o0

_The next day…_

Mizu awoke suddenly, sweating. _'That same dream…' _she thought unhappily. Mizu shuddered at the nightmare she had been having, like the same ones she had had over the past few weeks. Though she wouldn't show it, she was beginning to feel the affects of them and they were even beginning to manifest physically. Her eyes were shadowed more than usual from her fitful sleep and her face was slightly drawn. She sighed and got out of bed, getting onto her hands and feet and stretching, her tail curving upwards. With a sound like a 'meow' she got back up and breathed deeply, ready for the new day. Her cat ears detected the sound of running water and she could hear the voices of her friends nearby. Obviously she was one of the last ones to wake up… with a small smile she turned back to Gary, who was still sleeping soundly on her bed. They had kept their underwear on during the night but Mizu felt better, being in a comfortable presence. Gary… he was unique. He was like her; she decided. Part human and part something else. Gary had protested against his bionic eye replacement but relented eventually, knowing it would save his deteriorating vision. Plus his scar made him look… roguishly handsome. Mizu blushed at her thoughts and went about her morning routine of cleaning herself before getting dressed. She wrapped up her 36D breasts with more bandages as was her custom before slipping her bra on. Mizu had always thought her breasts were too big, and felt the need to make them appear smaller than they were. She put on a clean pair of her normal outfit, her purple boots, along with her black cargo pants, purple tube top and the black leather trench coat she and her friends now shared as their moniker. The light blue 'A' stood out proudly on her chest and she proceeded to rouse Gary from his sleep before leaving the room.

"… So we're near Viridian City. I heard from Ash that Team Rocket once ran the Gym here before Agatha of the Kanto Elite Four took over when he demolished it by mistake. Perhaps they had a base nearby?" Mizu could hear her friends speaking as she approached.

"I don't know. I'm feeling tired of chasing bases and running from bad guys. It's dangerous and Team Rocket aren't kidding around like they used to. We could be captured, shot, or raped because we keep aggravating them," the voice sounded like… Angel's?

"Aren't we trying to stop them though?" Ash most likely.

"Well yeah, but one base won't bother them. These guys are now a worldwide crime organisation. Team Magma and Team Aqua are small fry to these guys… and we dissolved those groups already. I think we should just keeping moving and stick together, stay low and keep out of trouble," Angel replied, her voice sounded tired.

"This isn't like you Angel… you're giving up?" Jake spoke up.

Mizu turned the corner and saw Angel, Ash, May, Jake and Sabre, who was hidden beneath a large hat, facemask that covered her up to the bridge of her nose and her trench coat. The only thing that could really be seen was her long dark hair and her equally dark eyes. Her kangaroo-like feet were in a huge pair of black combat boots, steel caps covering the toes. All in all she looked dark and menacing, which was why most trainers had given her a wide berth when they had entered the day before. Angel looked at Jake and Mizu saw his eyes flicker slightly, as if they were communicating telepathically.

"We can't give up sister," Mizu suddenly spoke up, causing everyone present to notice her. "If we do then they will win and will continue to hound us at every turn. Without us standing in their way, they will launch their inevitable plans to conquer the world. They can't so long as we can travel and oppose them, because we are the strongest pokemorphs they have produced, and our friends are equally as talented… some are even exceptional."

Mizu gave Ash a pointed look, to which he grinned, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. Being a Guardian of Aura _was _rather cool. Ash had recently learned how to hold his breath using the Aura to sustain him for up to five minutes. This was more favourable to nearly drowning in the Sea Temple during the Manaphy incident. Learning that May was a descendant of the People of the Water was rather cool as well though. Angel sighed, her shoulders slumped and eyes dull. She was the very picture of defeat and Sabre couldn't help but feel disheartened. Suddenly her mind flashed back to Rebekah, making peace with the people of her home village and the Star sisters meeting their parents again.

"We're not going to give up," Sabre said forcefully. "If we give up now everything we'll have done will have been for nought. We've stopped the release of a Shadow Legendary pokemon, destroyed a major space station, saved your parents from continuing their experiments, met up with other pokemorphs, made new friends and saved lives. If we have the power, we should do this for the greater good. Sure, we're in danger, but… that just one of us can help save the world makes the journey worth it for all of us… but now, the one who can make all the difference, is you."

Sabre smiled under her mask, remembering Lugia's words to Ash as they saved the world from destruction. The Power of One was an incredible thing, and Sabre felt that Angel should realise that she held that power, just like Ash. Angel looked at Sabre, her eyes filled with awe at her friend's words. Suddenly, her eyes began to brighten in happiness, a cyan glow erupting forth until her eyes literally shone with light and power. As quickly as it came Angel managed to suppress it and simply gave Sabre a thankful nod. There was a slam and Gary rushed around the corner, dressed and looking around.

"What did I miss?"

_Outside…_

Angel nodded to herself. Their plan was simple… keep travelling and listen for word of Team Rocket activity. Plus, if Team Rocket attempted to confront them, Angel and her friends would show them exactly who they were dealing with. If news about installations came to them, then they would look around and decide on how to deal with it. But for the most part Angel and her friends decided to enjoy themselves and travel the world, exploring new areas and meeting new people. Their first stop, you ask? Johto!

Ash remembered his journey through Johto with a smile. They had had many adventures and Ash had even won against Gary in the first battle of the League Tournament. As Ash and friends were walking, Angel was asking Ash about various places he'd visited in the Johto region. Jake listened with one ear while he was listening to an iPod Shuffle with the other. May was busy talking to Gary about Johto as well, while Sabre and Rebekah walked along hand in hand near the back of the group. The only one not doing much was Mizu, who trailed along at the back in deep thought.

'_That guy who attacked us yesterday… he seemed… unreal,' _she thought. _'The use of solid illusions and the ability to see things moving much faster than normal people can see… either he's a superhuman made by Team Rocket or…'_

"HOLY SHIT!!!"

Everyone jumped in shock at Mizu's sudden shout.

"What the fuck Mizu!?! Are you trying to give us heart attacks??" Angel shouted.

"… yesterday, that guy who attacked us," Mizu began to explain.

"Oh yeah, him! Did you figure out what was up with him?" Sabre asked, eager to know.

"Guys…we got shafted by a pokemon!"

……

"**WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!"**

"It must've been a Psychic type to have created Substitute and give it a human form like it had. Coupled with the ability to track fast moving objects like Rebekah's attacks, it must have really good eyesight. Plus it managed to toss Rebekah pretty hard so it must be stronger physically than most other Psychic types… using those features I think we can narrow it down to… a Gallade? They fit the description best of all pokemon," Mizu concluded sagely, nodding to herself.

"You mean to tell us that we were attacked by a pokemon working for Team Rocket? Not a pokemorph, not a superhuman, not some creepy stealth ninja assassin? Just a pokemon?" Angel asked, her breathing hitched and her eyes filled with burning anger.

"… Yeah that pretty much sums it up," Mizu replied, tilting her head cutely to the side. "Why?"

Angel seemed to struggle with her restraint for a few moments before she unclenched her fists with a sigh and turned around muttering, 'It's nothing. Let's go'. The group continued on their way, knowing that they would have to train themselves harder if they were to spot illusions such as the one they suffered from yesterday. Mizu internally was tearing her hair out. She was the Psychic of the group and she hadn't noticed a normal POKEMON? She felt like curling up and crying with the embarrassment of it all. As continued to walk at the back, ignorant of her surroundings until a hand on her shoulder brought her out of her trance.

"Are you okay Mizu? You seem kind of down," Gary said, concern tingeing his otherwise laid back voice.

"I just realised that my powers couldn't even see some mediocre pokemon illusion and our friends could've been hurt from it. I feel like such a failure…" Mizu mumbled, her head dropping to her chest. Her eyes were shadowed by her long pink fringe, blocking Gary from seeing the tears beginning to gather. "You should've just left me in that desert."

Gary said nothing, not knowing how to comfort Mizu. In normal circumstances he would've slapped her across the face for being so stupid, but he'd either lose his hand to her claws/psychic powers or he'd hurt it on the metal plates fused to her cheekbones. Deciding that it would be better to do something unexpected, Gary stiffened and stopped walking. Mizu stopped with him, wondering what Gary was doing. Gary looked around, as if he could feel something she couldn't. Mizu stretched out her senses but they were alone on the road besides a few wild, untrained pokemon.

"I sense something… elusive," Gary muttered.

The rest of the group continued on oblivious to what was happening. Mizu was getting worried now, her psychic powers seemed to be failing her if Gary could sense something she couldn't. Gary's eyes suddenly snapped to Mizu's and before she knew it he was… tickling her?

"Found it!" Gary exclaimed brightly.

Mizu, being that she was part neko-girl, had an extremely sensitive touch and Gary's dancing fingers on her sides was simply too much for her to contain. She collapsed to the ground, tears streaming down her face as she attempted to stem her hysterical laughter. Gary continued his relentless assault despite her pleas for him to stop, and Mizu found that she couldn't even focus enough to use her powers to stop him. Mizu's face began to redden and her eyes continued streaming as she giggled, laughed and hollered for mercy.

"N-No! HAHA!! Stop… p-please! Hehehe, it t-tickles!!! AHAHAHA! I-I can't t-take it a-anymore!!! Hehahahaha!!" Mizu squealed, her voice high pitched and filled with mirth.

Gary seemed to think about it for a second before he did stop and Mizu lay on the ground, panting. As Gary stood over her, he realised just how vulnerable Mizu looked at that moment, her delicate features, large soulful eyes gazing almost reproachfully at him, a light blush on her cheeks. Her chest heaved and Gary couldn't help but notice how her breasts rose and fell. Mizu had a very womanly body despite only being around 18, with wide hips, a slim waist, a flat stomach and long, smooth legs. Her hands were small, smooth and seemed out of place on such a strong yet fragile girl. Mizu noticed Gary's gaze and blushed even more, becoming embarrassed. Gary, who finally snapped out of it, went slightly red and stepped back, offering his hand to Mizu, whose breath was coming back under control. Mizu accepted Gary's hand and was pulled up into his arms, being lighter than Gary had anticipated. He quickly caught her and their faces became merely centimetres apart. Mizu blushed and Gary felt a sudden pull that had nothing to do with Psychic power. Their faces inched closer until they could feel each other's breath caressing their cheeks. Gary noted that Mizu's breath resembled that fragrance of Rawst Berries, while Mizu noted that Gary's smelled like peppermint. The teens closed their eyes and their lips came closer and closer-

"Hey guys, what's the hold up?"

Gary and Mizu sprang apart, blushing furiously while Gary sent a glare of pure malevolence at Jake, who cocked an eyebrow. Mizu fidgeted with her fingers, feeling like she got caught doing something she shouldn't have. Jake shrugged and told them to keep up before he turned and continued on with the rest of the group, who were watching Gary and Mizu intently. Gary cursed inwardly at his missed chance and glanced at Mizu, who seemed to be worse off than before he had cheered her up. She began to shuffle along, but Gary's hand went to her wrist and she stopped, looking at him in confusion._ 'Fuck it…' _Gary thought. He pulled Mizu closer and brought her lips to his own in a passionate kiss.

Angel was dumbfounded, Ash was shocked, May was 'awwwh'ing, Sabre was blinking, Rebekah was blushing and Jake didn't notice as his back was still turned. However, if one looked closely they would've seen a ghost of a smile on his face. Gary and Mizu shared their kiss for almost a full minute, Ash checked his PokeNav, before they separated, blushing even more. Angel got everyone else's attention and beckoned them on, leaving Gary and Mizu slightly behind. Gary looked down, slightly red, before looking back up to speak when a finger pressed against his lips. Mizu gave Gary a small smile before tapping her small nose with a finger knowingly. Gary grinned and shook his head before he looked to Mizu and they simultaneously began racing back to the group, hand in hand.

Suddenly, the sunlight seemed a lot brighter to the new couple.

* * *

**My god… I finally finished it. My sincere apologies to all my waiting fans, I'm now on Exam Leave so be sure to get the next chapter waaaaay sooner than this one came. Also I'm starting another poll to do with whether or not I should include the Cipher Syndicate from Orre in the fic, as well as Team Snagem or not? I've never actually played the game that they're in but I know a little about the characters like Wes and Rui so if you want them to make an appearance then let me know asap! =D As well as that, I had my 17****th**** birthday not too long ago in case you guys were wondering****J****.**

**Finally, I'm wondering about a possible crossover for some chapters later on and I have a few ideas so give votes on which you like the sound of, also voting will end once chapter 36 is released:**

**No crossover: 0**

**  
Naruto: 0 (The Kyuubi will be a gigantic Ninetails with Lvl 100 powers, sealed in Naruto but not part of him so he will be near-fully human with some pokemon attacks and his ninja training. (Ninjas exist in pokemon anyway, remember Koga?))**

**Inuyasha: 0 (Ol' Inu will be a pokemorph in case you're wondering.)**

**Yu-Gi-Oh!: 0 (Will mainly be about the game and the Shadow Realm will probably include Darkrai in some way…)**

**Bleach: 0 (A trip to Soul Society? Does that mean one of our heroes are dead?... or does one come back? :P)**

**And finally, any Pokemon movie including and beyond The Rise of Darkrai (these movies will be as canon but with our heroes in them! :3)**

**Kgmck177 signing out!**


	36. Chapter 36: Rivals Emerge, Feelings Grow

**Dark Angel**

**Hello again fans; it's good to be back. *bow* Now then, we're here to get underway with the 36****th**** chapter of Dark Angel. Since we're into Season 2 there have been some changes to our friends that I thought I'd summarize for everyone in case they need reminded. We'll go with Angel, Jake, Ash, May, Sabre, Rebekah, Mizu, and Gary! Also, I plan on making this the longest chapter I have EVER written, over 20,000 words! I hope you get a kick out of this action-packed chapter, that's right it's ACTION time! Also there is going to be another lemon people, seeing as I need to put the M back into this Mature story. Anyways here are your updated stats for our heroes:**

**Angel Star:**

**Changes: Angel is taller; her hair is longer and a darker shade of blue, more of a dark cobalt than cyan; she wears a black trenchcoat with a blue A on the right chest area and a snowflake on the left; she is no longer a virgin.**

**Age: 17**

**Status: Homo-Pokemorphus (Human turned Pokemorph)**

**Specialties: Ice Type mastery, Pokemon Training, Flight and Leadership.**

**Weaknesses: Fire Type, Electricity, Hostages, Speed, Strength, Jake.**

**Jake Paterson:**

**Changes: Jake simply looks older; he wears a black trenchcoat with a blue A on the right chest area with a large, flipped up collar; he and Angel are having intimate relations; Jake likes to play more jokes.**

**Age: Immortal (17 years since creation)**

**Status: Polymorph/Pokemorph**

**Specialties: Transformation, Information Gathering, Capture, Rescue and Recovery, Healing, Tactical Planning.**

**Weaknesses: Reaction time, Illusions, Radiation, Angel.**

**Ash Ketchum:**

**Changes: Ash is taller and more muscular; he wears gloves like Sir Aaron; he wears a black trenchcoat with a blue A on the right chest area, with a wider tail than the others; he and May are a couple; he uses the power of Aura.**

**Age: 16**

**Status: Human**

**Specialties: Guardian of the Aura, Defense, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Pokemon Training, Moral Support, Engineering.**

**Weaknesses: Strength, Speed, Reaction time, May, Pokemon Cruelty, Hostages, and Psychics.**

**May Maple:****  
****Changes: May is taller, more muscular and has a more womanly figure; she has bigger breasts than Angel; she wears a shorter black trenchcoat with a blue A on the right chest area; she is emotional, jealous and ill-tempered.**

**Age: 16**

**Status: Human**

**Specialties: Theft, Marksmanship, Coordinating, Interrogation.**

**Weaknesses: Emotional, Jealous, Ash Ketchum, Reaction time, Speed, Strength, Hostages, Pokemon Cruelty, Taunts.**

**Sabre:**

**Changes: Her hair is black and goes down to her waist; she is very tall; she wears a large black trenchcoat with a blue A on the right chest area and a thunderbolt on the left; she and Rebekah are a couple; she used to be Pikachu.**

**Age: 21 (5 in Pokemon Years)**

**Status: Pokemon-Pokemorphus (Pokemon turned Pokemorph)**

**Specialties: Hand-to-Hand Combat, Electric Type mastery, Magnetism, Tank, Super Strength, Huge Knockers =P**

**Weaknesses: Rebekah, Speed, Ground Type, Hostages, Ash Ketchum, Pokemon Cruelty, Taunts at Family and being a Pokemorph.**

**Rebekah Torche:**

**Changes: Her breasts are as big as May's; she is taller and her hair is a darker shades of orange, red and gold; her horn is still short; she wears a black coat with a blue A on the right chest area and a flame on the left.**

**Age: 18**

**Status: Unknown (I haven't said yet have I? It's a surprise)**

**Specialties: Communications, Supersonic Speed, Fire Type mastery, Imitation, Computer Skills.**

**Weaknesses: Anger Management, Sabre, Hostages, Water Type, Ground Type, Rock Type, Strength, Ash Ketchum, Taunts at being abnormal.**

**Mizu Star:**

**Changes: Mizu has violet cat ears and a violet tail; her pink hair is longer and wilder; her eyes are slitted amethyst; her breasts are pretty big; she has a metal-reinforced skeleton; she wears a black trenchcoat with a blue A on the left chest area and a split up the tail; she and Gary are a couple.**

**Age: 18**

**Status: Homo-Pokemorphus**

**Specialties: Empathy, Psychic Type mastery, Flight, Telepathy, Tank, Cuteness.**

**Weaknesses: Bug Type, Dark Type, Fire Type, Strong Emotions, Electricity, Short Breath, Strong Minds, Hostages, Angel Star, Gary Oak, Anger Management, Cipher Syndicate, Speed, Strength, Taunts.**

**Gary Oak:**

**Changes: Gary has a cybernetic eye; his hair is still spiky but longer and he has a short ponytail; he is taller; he wears a black trenchcoat with a blue A on the right chest area; he and Mizu are a couple; he is far less arrogant.**

**Age: 16**

**Status: Human**

**Specialties: Piloting, Driving, Research, Reconnaissance, Pokemon Training, Melee Weapon Combat, Psychology.**

**Weaknesses: Strength, Speed, Reaction time, Hostages, Mizu Star, Jabs at the eye.**

**And there you have it fans! When I list a character name as a weakness, I mean that those characters can be used against them, where as hostages are just hostages in general, not specific people. Also, remember that the polls end at the end of this chapter so pay attention then. Finally, a big hand to Mizu, who was the final Pokemorph on the team to find herself a boyfriend! *cheers***

**Mizu: Are you trying to say I'm incapable? *angry face* :¬(**

**Author: No, no, n- put that down! No, don't come closer, some help m-…**

**Mizu: *puts down the mallet* Well… where was he?... erm… ah… fuck it, here we go!

* * *

**

**Chapter 36: Rivals Emerge, Feelings Grow!**

"_**Are they ready for deployment?"**_

"_Yes leader. They have been created exactly as you instructed and are ready to activate."_

"_**Excellent work, but we shall see how they fare in a field test. Activate 'Project: E.L.S.A.F' immediately."**_

"_At once, leader."_

0o0o0o0o0o0

It had been an uneventful week since Angel and her friends had decided on their next course of action. They had traveled to Viridian City and decided to go through the Indigo Pass into Johto, Jimmy's home region. Rebekah was nervous about going to Johto, but with Sabre at her side, she faced it without fear. Mizu and Gary had been getting closer and closer, nowadays they couldn't be seen unless in each other's company. Mizu had become somewhat clingy to Gary, but she retained the ability to focus on the tasks at hand. Currently the group was approaching Cherrygrove City and their first major stop for their journey. Ash planned on contacting his mother to let her know that they were okay, May was planning on asking Ash on a date, Rebekah and Sabre were going to avoid the locals while Mizu and Gary had plans of their own. Only Angel and Jake were going to use their time to plan against Team Rocket, even with their non-aggression decision. It stood to reason to have a plan should they become engaged by the notorious crime organization. What they had forgotten, was that Johto had a major Team Rocket presence, as Jimmy had told them before. Without realizing it, the team walked closer and closer to their sworn enemy's clutches.

"Gary, you've been to Johto right?" Mizu asked near the back of the group.

"Yeah, it's a nice region and there's plenty of history in each town. Like in Cherrygrove for example, it's built near the water and a few decades ago it was just a port town for small ships and the fishing trade. But after a while it began to grow due to the influx of tourists and now it's a sprawling city with a beach resort," Gary replied.

Mizu's eye lit up at the words 'beach resort'.

"What are we waiting for? Let's roll!"

Mizu began to glow a bright blue and the entire party began to levitate off the ground. Without warning, all of them began to rocket through the air towards Cherrygrove, Mizu laughing all the way. Angel chuckled at her sister's antics, knowing that Mizu knew she could fly by herself at their speed. Meanwhile, May was not having nearly so much fun as she screamed and cursed at Mizu, feeling ill at the high speeds they were flying. Ash sighed at May's rant, knowing full well that she didn't really mean it but if May got upset she let her mouth run without a pilot and it sometimes caused trouble between their friends. Thankfully Mizu was not paying attention to May, which cowed the angry teen seeing as she was getting no response. Rebekah and Sabre were enjoying their impromptu flight and attempting various acrobatics with the limited mobility they had. After a few minutes Cherrygrove City came into few and Mizu dropped herself and her friends gently on the ground, deciding it best to not fly in and cause a commotion. _'I can't wait to get to the beach! I wonder if Gary will like the swimsuit I have, oooooh it's going to be so much fun!' _Mizu thought eagerly. It took the group only a half hour to walk the rest of the distance, Mizu becoming more and more impatient with every second.

"Come on, let's go! I want to go to the beach!" Mizu exclaimed, her hidden tail twitching in excitement.

"Wait, the beach? Is that why you flew us here?" May asked, her eyes sparkling with delight. "Awesome! Let's get going!"

Ash, Angel, Jake and Gary chuckled at their enthusiasm as they wandered to the beachfront through the city, Rebekah and Sabre not far behind. People gave them curious look due to their nearly identical jackets but it was not the unwelcome curiosity. Angel noticed that people began talking as they passed, but it wasn't hushed whispers behind their backs… it was more like gossip. Angel mentally shrugged and continued on her way, Jake at her side. After a few minutes and a buzzing crowd left behind, Angel and friends reached the beach where Mizu and May were waiting, practically vibrating on the spot. Angel and Jake were left with most of their backpacks to book in at a hotel before everyone else left for the beach, except for Rebekah and Sabre who remained behind. No one had really noticed the two as Rebekah and Sabre had covered up, though Sabre's was a lot more suspicious. She had pulled up the hood attachment of her jacket, causing her facial features to be hidden by shadow. Meanwhile her tail was tucking into the back of her jeans and her large three-toed feet were safely hidden in a pair of heavy-duty boots. She also kept her hands stuffed deep into her pockets, trying not to draw attention to herself. Rebekah on the other hand, was wearing a wide-brimmed sun hat, tilted forward so that both the brim and her hair were covering her small horn. Angel noticed that they weren't running off with their friends and spoke up absent-mindedly.

"Why aren't you two going? It's a beautiful day," she asked, looking at the couple.

"My horn/looks," was the simultaneous reply.

Angel deflated, realizing what they meant and what it meant to them. She looked sadly at her friends, knowing that they too, were depressed at not being able to join in the fun. All of a sudden, Jake looked up and towards Rebekah and Sabre, like he'd had a revelation. He focused on Sabre first, who gave him the raised eyebrow after noticing his intense look. Jake took a few seconds to think of how to describe his thoughts to Sabre while not sounding like a complete lunatic. He was mentally banging his head into his brick hard mind defenses, berating himself for not thinking of it earlier.

"I just thought Sabre… since Angel can transform into an Articuno, since she's a human turned pokemorph. I thought maybe you can transform into a human due to you being a pokemon turned pokemorph? It makes sense in an ironic way," he explained carefully.

Jake didn't get to say much more as he was stunned by what he saw. Standing in Sabre's place was not the tall, intimidating furry he was used to. Instead there was a woman looking at him in confusion. Her eyes were a golden color, her blonde hair revealed as her hood was drawn back. Her hair was long and straight besides two thick bangs that hung down either side of her face with black tips, making them look like Pikachu ears that had flopped down. She had shrunk and was now only a few inches taller than Rebekah but she had retained Sabre's amazing figure. Her stomach was flat and slightly toned, while her breasts were a large E-cup but firm and her hips wide and curvy. Thankfully no one seemed to have noticed the darkly dressed figure shrinking to a normal size. What Jake hadn't expected though was for the clothes she was wearing to stay the same size and so she was desperately holding onto the waistband of her combats to prevent them from dropping. Her boots were several sizes too large and they could see one of her shoulders from the neck of her top, while her trenchcoat hung off her shoulders. Jake reacted promptly after a second and grabbed her before they both vanished, invisible to the naked eye.

"Whoa!" Angel gasped after a moment's surprise. "It actually worked! We never EVER thought of that."

"I-I can't b-believe it… I l-look-," Sabre stuttered from nowhere, still invisible so long as Jake was touching her.

"Gorgeous," Rebekah interrupted, her smile nearly shining with happiness.

After a few minutes and some protests about not touching there, Jake and Sabre reappeared, Jake having fashioned suitable clothes for Sabre. Angel gave Jake a dark look while he nervously scratched the back of his head, as Sabre examined herself. She couldn't believe that her human side was so accessible, but she couldn't help but realize that she was incredibly vulnerable. While she wouldn't change back unless she willed it, she couldn't use her super strength or any of her electrical powers at all in this form. After a minute or two of celebration, Rebekah looked at Jake, wondering if he'd though of a way for her to look normal too. Jake gave her a knowing look and Rebekah felt tears begin to well up in her eyes at the thought of being able to fit in, without having to cover up her, in her eyes, deformity.

"Come on, this one is going to need some privacy," Jake said, walking down the beachfront to a nearby hotel.

Angel, Rebekah and the newly transformed and better dressed Sabre followed quickly. Sabre became painfully aware that she was receiving friendly and in some cases, lustful looks from the normal people around her. Without her newly discovered transformation she would have had people running and screaming. Jake and Angel signed in for a three-day stay with all their friends at the front desk and were given four room keys. Angel and Jake shared a worried glance, knowing that some wouldn't mind but unsure about others. At the same time, Angel was looking forward to seeing what else she and Jake could come up with in the bedroom. Their first time had been amazing for her and she was becoming anxious to do more. Sabre and Rebekah were absolutely fine sharing a bedroom, even if it was a single bed. Rebekah blushed at the thought of seeing under Sabre's clothes in her human form, wondering how she looked. Sabre herself was excited about exploring her new self, still fascinated with her human form. After a minute or two, the four of them went up to their assigned rooms and gathered in Angel and Jake's room. Jake motioned to the king-sized bed and he and Rebekah sat down while Angel and Sabre watched.

"Okay… this _should_ work and I stress that word because I've only done this once before," Jake said, giving a meaningful look to Angel.

"Jake you aren't going to-," Angel began, concern flooding her voice.

_SNAP!!!_

No one moved for a second, unable to believe what had just happened. People on the beach continued to play around and go about their business when suddenly a scream filled the air that caused sandcastles to collapse, a man to drop his ice cream in the sand, all the pokemon to flee in a fright, and for the tide itself to recede. The agonized shriek lasted only for a second or two before it faded out. Many people looked at the hotel it came from in confusion and suspicion, not sure they wanted to know what went on in that place.

Inside, Rebekah held onto her horn, looking at in wonder as tears of pain flowed down her cheeks. She held her horn up to her face, unable to comprehend that Jake had just snapped it off. She turned to look at him, only to see him collapsed on the bed, his eyes pinched and face drawn with exhaustion. Sabre and Angel were looking at her in surprise, and Rebekah was suddenly anxious to know what was going on. She got off the bed and dashed into the bathroom, finding the mirror and immediately searched her face. What she saw shocked her to the core.

_It's gone…_

Rebekah's forehead was clear. Her skin was smooth and unmarred underneath her fringe, causing Rebekah to begin beaming in delight. She thought about her horn and was suddenly shocked when it grew from her forehead like a Gallade's elbow blades. She frowned and thought of her clear forehead and was shocked when the horn sunk back in, as though it was never there in the first place. She did this several times, noting how she felt much stronger with the horn out than she did with it in. Keeping it hidden seemed to drain her power as it was a conscious effort to hide it, after that it stayed hidden but kept her power low. Rebekah felt more tears building in her eyes but this time it was tears of unbridled joy. With a cry of happiness she dashed back into the bedroom and glomped the now standing Jake, sending him back onto the bed as she cried into his stomach.

_Meanwhile…_

Mizu, Gary, Ash and May were busy at the beach. They were playing together in the water and they had decided to have a team water fight. May was sitting on Ash's shoulders while Mizu was sitting on Gary's, who was trying his hardest to not get a nosebleed. Mizu was wearing a purple one-piece swimsuit that fit her like a second skin. It was open at the back and also had a bare patched on her stomach, showing her toned body extremely well. He tried not to notice that the cold water had caused her nipples to harden and they were easily noticeable, which was the cause of his plight. It didn't help that she was sitting on his shoulders and her… _private_ area was pressing against the back of his neck. Gary tried to take his mind off it with the game and charged forward slowly, the water level with his chest. Ash made his way over to Gary too, slightly slower due to his being shorter than Gary. When they reached one another May and Mizu began to grapple, trying to drag one another off of their teammates. Ash and Gary splashed at each other, trying to unbalance them as the girls fought. May's red and white two-piece swimsuit, while provocative, was nowhere near as distracting as Mizu's and Ash managed to distract Gary by staring at Mizu, which caused Gary to blush and lose focus. May got the upper hand and tipped Gary over, dragging Mizu down with him. They fell in with a splash, laughing the entire time. Suddenly an invisible force grabbed Ash's ankles and he was dragged in too, taking May down at the same time.

"Hey, that was a cheap shot!" May giggled.

Mizu simply stuck her tongue out and blew May a raspberry, which then degenerated into a small catfight, Ash and Gary watching from the sidelines. The two girls wrestled around in the water, unaware that they were being watched by three pairs of eyes from afar. Mizu finally managed to get May in a headlock, her breasts pressed against the back of May's head, which created a very distracting and arousing picture for Ash and Gary, who decided that the better part of valor was to run before they passed out. Seeing their boyfriends leave, Mizu and May broke apart and followed them, content with their activity. Suddenly they were approached by four individuals, one of whom was not familiar.

"Hey guys," Angel exclaimed, clad in a one-piece cyan swimsuit like Mizu's but with snowflakes patterned across it.

"What's going on?" asked Rebekah, wearing a flaming two piece string bikini swimsuit.

"Having fun?" asked the third woman that Gary, Mizu and May were sure they hadn't met.

She was around 21 years old or so, tall, blonde and had black tips on her bangs, which made her look like a Pikachu. Her golden eyes were intense and Ash nearly had a heart attack when he recognized her. Sabre was wearing a one-piece black swimsuit with yellow stripes down the side. She had a lightning bolt emblazoned just under the V-neck which showed off ample cleavage. Simply put she looked sexy, and she knew it. Sabre winked at him, causing Rebekah to blush the same as Ash. Jake had to repress the urge to sigh at Sabre's antics, just _knowing_ that they would lead to some sort of fight.

"Sabre? How did you-," Ash asked.

"That's Sabre!?!" May screeched, pointing at the blonde bombshell that stood before them.

Sabre nodded, holding her arms behind her back, which drew more attention to her breasts than ever. Men around the beach were watching her intently and Rebekah found herself becoming jealous of the attention Sabre was getting. May fumed for a while, unable to accept that Sabre was now better looking than her but eventually she got over it, knowing that underneath she was still the same fur-covered freak she had been. Satisfied by this, May and the others set off, still unaware of their unknown watchers.

"_We've found them. Shall we engage now?"_

"_No, there are too many eyes. This is to be a quiet operation."_

"_No fun, the red one looks delicious."_

"_Shut up… always thinking with your _other_ head…"_

"_Yeah. Besides, the red one is our target, don't get distracted!"_

"_Sorry…"_

0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel sighed in content as she lay on a towel, soaking up the sun's rays. The sand around her was letting off waves of heat that it distorted the air around them, creating a heat haze that Rebekah found just as relaxing. Rebekah had no need to lie on a towel and had her back to the sand, finding the heat from it to be soothing. She watched as Sabre futilely tried to create a sand castle, the sand she was using being far too dry or far too wet to maintain its form. Eventually she just gave up and pouted, crossing her arms under her breasts as she stalked over to Rebekah and sat down. They remained silent, simply enjoying each other's presence as they watched Ash, May, Gary, Mizu, Jake and some other person play volleyball further along the beach.

"Ready to win guys?" Ash asked.

"Yeah!" was the reply from his team.

Ash's team consisted of Jake, Mizu and himself. Against them were May, Gary and their volunteer, whose name was Leo. Ash and Mizu were at the front side courts while Jake had the rear to himself, and on the other side, May and Leo were the front players while Gary took the back. Ash gripped the volleyball firmly and prepared to serve. With a sly nod from Mizu, he lightly tossed it up before hitting it upwards in an arc over the net towards Leo, on the opposite side from him. Leo played it sideways to May who hit it back to Gary. Gary's enhanced eye showed him the ball's trajectory and the new trajectory it would take depending on how he hit it.

After nearly an hour more, the game ended and the five came back to their friends, sitting down together and talking amicably. Sabre listened with one ear as Gary talked Mizu's head off about the different research he'd done on various kinds of pokemon. Ash and May were talking about pokemon contests and different combinations that went well together. She couldn't hear Angel and Jake's conversation as they were lying right next to each other, whispering into each other's ears, while Angel giggled now and then.

"Sabre?" Rebekah said suddenly.

"Hmm?"

"Do you… have any interests?" Rebekah asked shyly.

"… Not really. As a pokemon I didn't have to have any interests and as a person I was in captivity, training for the most part. I did enjoy using computers though, while doing my technical studies," Sabre replied, keeping her voice low.

"Really? When Professor Oak showed my how computers work I fell in love with them instantly. The feeling of control I get and how I can make them do just about anything I want just by pressing some buttons, it feels great!" Rebekah exclaimed, keeping her voice low as well.

"So you like hacking? Changing the way programs work to do what you want?" Sabre asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah! It's brilliant! I once changed a secure search program into a key-logging program by changing the parameters of its search function," Rebekah replied excitedly, clearly uncaring as to the illegality of her hobby.

Rebekah and Sabre continued to talk like this, oblivious to their friends watching them with smiles. All except May, who regarded them with what seemed to be confusion. _'I've heard the others talking about it but are they really _into_ each other? I mean, that's just not right. Angel, Mizu and I all have handsome guys to ourselves… why are they interested in each other? I bet Sabre's just trying to make me lower my guard so she can snatch Ash away from me. She _was_ his Pikachu and they were really close, so I wouldn't put it past her…' _she thought. She looked around at her friends, who were also watching Sabre and Rebekah, and noticed their expressions. _'They seem… happy? Sabre and Rebekah are _really_ a couple? …Maybe, I was wrong after all.'_

"Hey ladies, mind if we join you?"

Sabre and Rebekah looked up, surprised. Standing over them were two tall men, around the age of eighteen to twenty. One of them was very muscular and clad only in black trunks with yellow stripes down either side. He had blonde hair flecked with smoky grey. His fierce hazel eyes bored into Sabre's as he eyed her up, much to Rebekah's ire. His friend was almost his polar opposite. He was still tall, but shorter than his friend and he was wearing black trunks with red stripes down the sides. He had reddish brown hair and bright blue eyes that shone intensely as he watched Rebekah. He was also lean, rather than muscular and seemed much thinner than his friend. Sabre frowned at them, not impressed.

"Can we help you?" she asked, her voice cool.

"We were just passing by and noticed you two with all your friends, but with no guys. We thought we could help with that," the blonde one said suggestively.

"Sorry bud, but you're chasing the wrong women here," Sabre replied.

"Oh? How's that? Surely a beautiful woman such as you can't resist such a handsome guy like me?" Blondie retorted.

"Ignore him Sabre; we don't need to listen to him," Rebekah interjected before Sabre could respond.

Sabre gave Rebekah a glowing look before she cupped Rebekah's face in her hands and pulled her into a passionate kiss. Rebekah was in too much bliss to be surprised as Sabre's warm, soft lips caressed her own. Catcalls echoed around the beach as other guys noticed them making out and began to cheer them on. The two men before them were shocked to say the least. Their jaws were starting to collect sand before they managed to pick them up. Eventually Sabre and Rebekah separated and glanced at the pair, only to see them walking away. Sabre giggled at their disappointment while Rebekah left out a soft moan for Sabre's attention. Sabre grinned and was about to return to Rebekah when the blonde one glanced back at her.

'_Oh no…'_

Sabre suddenly stood up from her seat, ignoring Rebekah's squawk of protest at the time, and turned to the group, drawing their eyes. It made her pleased that everyone in the group was respected by all the others and that they were generally taken seriously. With a quick hand motion, she had they following her as she led they off the beach and back to the hotel. Rebekah caught up to Sabre but was ignored when she asked what was wrong. Sabre was silent the whole way there until they reached the adjacent rooms where everyone was staying. She led them into her and Rebekah's room and as soon as the door was closed she turned to them with a grave expression. Angel saw it and nodded to Mizu, who raised a hand and projected a dim purple barrier across all the walls, the ceiling and the floor, soundproofing the room to any eavesdroppers.

"Team Rocket is here," was all she said.

"WHAT?!?!"

"Those two guys, they aren't what they appeared to be. They work for Team Rocket and they're after us," Sabre exclaimed forcefully. "I saw the look in the blonde one's eyes, a look I've seen a thousand times. He knew what I was and he was looking down on me, I know it."

May was the first to respond to Sabre's declaration with a short and simple:

"Bullshit."

Sabre glared at her so fiercely that May suddenly felt cold inside. Sufficiently cowed, she fell silent and listened to everyone else as they pitched in.

"How can you be sure Sabre? I mean, this is pretty serious," Angel asked, concerned.

"My instincts tell me that they weren't human and that they're planning something, whoever they are. We didn't get any names from them," Sabre replied.

"Yeah, you were too busy making out," May suddenly said.

The room fell silent at this and everyone looked fearfully at Sabre, wondering if she'd blow her top at May again. Sabre herself had her eyes closed and seemed to struggling with herself. Rebekah, however, had no such problems and the resounding smack echoed around the room. May clutched her smarting cheek as Rebekah gave her a harsh, dirty look and turned away from her. No one said anything, not even May. None had expected Rebekah to react so violently but they didn't protest lest they incur her wrath. Though Angel hated the in-fighting amongst her teammates, she knew that if they all joined in and began to fight then they could very well end up destroying everything they had worked towards.

"May…" Sabre suddenly said, causing everyone in the room to freeze in terror.

"Y-yeah?"

"Why do you hate us?" Sabre asked, her human face down and depressed. "Don't you think we suffer enough persecution and cruelty just for what we are? Now we have to suffer you just for _who_ we are?"

"I-I… I didn't think… I just…" May stammered, her eyes beginning to tear, unable to take everyone's stares. "… _no_."

"What was that?" Sabre asked.

"I said… no. I'm sorry for the way I've treated you… I was just jealous. You're beautiful, even when you're… you know. You're tough, smart, courageous, and you get along with everyone even Mizu," May replied tiredly, earning a protest from Mizu. _"I get along with everyone!" _May sighed and looked up, eye to eye with Sabre and Rebekah. "I don't suppose we can still be friends?"

Rebekah frowned and opened her mouth to say 'no' but Sabre beat her to it and smiled warmly, giving May a short nod. May smiled in returned and everyone was touched that Sabre could be so forgiving. Sabre let her smile remain for a few moments before she returned to her serious demeanor. Everyone immediately stiffened and paid close attention, knowing that Sabre's lightning-quick intellect was probably hard at work, creating and destroying different scenarios and counter-strategies to be used.

"Back to our original topic, we need to think of what to do. We can't leave the city, they'd follow us and we'd be out in the open on our own. They could have a whole SWAT team waiting for us," Sabre declared. "Likewise we can't wait here; otherwise we risk a public confrontation that leads to people discovering what we are. Anyone got any ideas?"

No one spoke for a few moments, thinking hard.

"What about a diversion?" Angel asked.

Sabre caught on immediately, her years of team training with Angel kicking in.

"We send one of us out on their own to a private area to draw them out, then we ambush their reinforcements. Right?" she asked, liking Angel's thinking.

"Exactly. The only question is who do we send?" Angel replied, looking unsurely around her friends, unwilling to forcefully task one of them.

"I'll do it."

Everyone looked at Rebekah, who had a determined look.

"I've never really contributed much to team discussions or plans and I want to make a difference. I'll draw out these guys, whatever they are and I'll take them down while you guys take care of their friends," she said.

Angel and Sabre nodded to her, proud of Rebekah's fighting spirit. With all that said, they began to plan the diversion. Rebekah was to make her way to an old warehouse near the edge of the city and wait for the Team Rocket goons to show up. She would then engage them and take them down while Angel and the rest watched the building from the outside, except for Mizu, who would be on the roof listening with her ears AND telepathic abilities for backup in case Rebekah needed help. Angel warned Rebekah not to use too much of her power in case she either burned down the warehouse or alerted the local authorities with the noise. Rebekah agreed to this, wanting to prove that she didn't have to rely on her speed all the time to succeed. Sabre reminded her that she should use it if she had to, if she needed it to win. The group waited for sundown, when the streets would be emptiest as people went to bed.

After a few hours the streets were empty enough and Rebekah set off on her own, being watched from the rooftops by Angel, Jake, Sabre and Mizu. Ash, May and Gary were still in their room, knowing that they'd be safer in a public place. Angel and Mizu kept a vigilant lookout for any hostile activity en route to the contact point. It was very tense during the trip but after around thirty minutes, they reached the warehouse with no sign of the enemy. Rebekah glanced back to the trees next to the warehouse and saw a small yellow flash, which was Sabre's signal to go inside. Rebekah stepped up to the cast iron door and pushed it open, wincing at the squeal it let out as the rust grated on its hinges. As soon as the door was open wide enough, Rebekah slipped inside and walked to the middle on the open floor. The warehouse was a two storey building, with a cement-made ladder leading up to the second floor, saving room for more cargo with its design. Rebekah shrugged mentally and leapt straight up the ladder and landed lightly on the second floor. This area was also clear but there was something strange about the middle of the room. There was a high rectangular platform in the shape of a square-based stepped pyramid. A layer of rectangular concrete with concentric smaller layers on top of it, leading up around thirty steps to a much smaller flat area was the overall design.

"This doesn't feel right…" Rebekah muttered to herself.

"It shouldn't."

Rebekah turned and flipped back, avoiding a fist from crashing down on her. The force of the fist cracked the concrete beneath it and Rebekah choked back a gasp at who the fist belonged to. It was… Entei? It looked just like Entei, but with a more humanoid form. Thinner forelegs and slightly larger hind legs allowed the monster to stand up like a human. It wore loose leather pants and a leather vest with a large red R emblazoned on the back of it. The Entei-man gave Rebekah a fanged grin as it looked her up and down.

"You look good enough to eat…" it rumbled.

"W-what… Who are you?" Rebekah asked, starting to become terribly nervous.

"Call me Pyro sweetheart. I know who you are of course. They called you Project Phoenix," Pyro growled in his rough voice.

"Phoenix? I don't understand," Rebekah replied, becoming upset.

"Don't you remember? You're one of us, made by Team Rocket to be the best!" Pyro exclaimed proudly. "You were Team Rocket's first ever attempt at pokemon-human hybridization, so of course they simply made you."

"Made me?" Rebekah asked.

"You never had any parents. Or family… you were grown in a test tube, with your DNA preprogrammed to be part pokemon, part human," Pyro stated.

Rebekah's heart froze at this statement. She couldn't believe her ears, she was a test subject from Team Rocket! She wasn't even natural… Tears began to form in her eyes as Rebekah let a deep, cold anger began to burn in her heart. She looked up at Pyro with blazing eyes that made him pause for a moment. Rebekah's temple had a vein twitching madly as her blood pressure shot through the room and her chest heaved as she began seething with rage.

"It… was… YOU!!!" she roared, her form exploding into flames.

Forgetting the plan completely, Rebekah exploded from her spot as fast as she could, punching Pyro right in the face. She followed up with a roundhouse kick to the chin that snapped his head back and caused him to rise into the air slightly. Rebekah bent onto her hands and pushed off, kicking Pyro further into the air for her combo attack. She then twisted up and grabbed his ankle before he could rise any higher.

"_SEISMIC TOSS!!!" _Rebekah yelled.

She spun vertically, head over heels several times, with Pyro in tow. Building up momentum she released him at the apex of her spin and hurled him as hard as she could towards the unforgiving floor. Pyro managed to regain control before he was impromptu reacquainted with the floor, hitting the ground on all fours and skidded back as Rebekah hit the ground hard a second later, her legs bending with the force. She still looked angry but inside Rebekah was empty. She felt colder than she ever had in the winter months of her childhood with nothing covering her but a ragged shirt and threadbare shorts, the cracks in the walls of windows of her shed letting the harsh weather in without resistance. Rebekah sighed, feeling utterly defeated. Was there a point in continuing?

"Come on then… finish it. You want to kill me right? Just do it," Rebekah said emotionlessly, spreading her arms wide.

Pyro frowned, unable to comprehend Rebekah's behavior.

"Rebekah, right? That's what that blonde babe called you on the beach. I'm not going to kill you unless you fight me properly, there's no fun in killing helpless prey," Pyro grumbled deeply.

Rebekah's eyes widened at the implications.

"That was you at the beach!? But then that means-," she started.

"That's right! I have friends with me outside. They'll be on your friends like Mothims to a Flareon. You can help them if you can beat me," Pyro taunted.

"I don't need to beat you, I'm already gone," Rebekah snapped back.

She rocketed from her current spot, heading for the ladder at breakneck speeds. She was shocked to find that Pyro was at the ladder waiting for her. She jumped back and nearly screamed in surprise when Pyro rushed towards her at speeds rivaling her own. She felt a fist connect with her cheek and Rebekah was thrown to the top of the platform in the middle of the floor. Pyro jumped after her and landed on the other end, hand/paws raised. Rebekah glared at him before she flipped onto her feet. Sabre's advice popped into her mind but Rebekah decided that she could beat him without her speed, especially if he could match it. _'I never imagined I'd find someone, or something as fast as me… this is going to be tough.' _She thought grimly. Rebekah heard a scream outside and exploded into motion. She rushed in with a right-hook that Pyro dodged by slipping past her left side, sliding into a crouch behind her. Rebekah turned just as Pyro turned his crouch into a roundhouse kick that connected solidly with her stomach. This made Rebekah double over, gasping for breath, before she suddenly bent down onto her hands, striking down with her heel, aiming for Pyro's head. Pyro caught the kick with both hands and pushed it away, causing Rebekah to fall back again onto the ground, on all fours. Rebekah pulled her limbs close together and shot out with a Double Kick, aiming to nail him with both feet in the chest. Unfortunately, Pyro had already spotted the attack and jumped over it, his knees at his chest to gain the necessary clearance over Rebekah's attack, leaving Rebekah stretched out in midair underneath him. Pyro used this and tried to Stomp Rebekah into the ground however, she landed before he did and managed to pull her legs back in time, causing him to land heavily just in front of her. Rebekah used the momentum from her escape to roll onto her shoulders and then push herself up and backwards, into a backflip that let her fall back onto her feet, even further from Pyro, who was dashing forward at her. Rebekah had just landed and used both hands to block a kick from Pyro that would have done some damage. Pyro was forced down from her block and Rebekah turned it into a two-fist punch to his chest, which was blocked but forced him to stumble backwards a little. Rebekah capitalized on this and gave a short Jump Kick that was ducked under, which caused her to frown. Rebekah kicked down with her extended leg, which Pyro blocked with his forearm however Rebekah suddenly pushed off with her shin and turned in the air for a sweeping kick that had her opponent backflip in the air to avoid.

Rebekah got up just as Pyro was about to land, her back turned to him. Rebekah tired to step back into a rear kick but Pyro caught the offending limb with both hands and pushed it into the ground, causing Rebekah to slip. However, Rebekah pressed a hand onto the ground and tried to kick out her other leg, as Pyro let her leg go. Pyro dodged back and Rebekah flipped her body upright and turned to Pyro who had begun to rush at her once more. Pyro spun on one foot to smash Rebekah with his elbow but Rebekah met his elbow with her own and they both turned each other from the force of the hit. Rebekah tried to punch down on Pyro's head but he used the arm he'd tried to elbow her with to knock her arm up and off-balance her, his other arm rushing forward into her open guard… or it would have had Rebekah not used her raised arm to smack down his approaching fist as she stumbled back, Pyro stumbling towards her. With a cry, their fists met with a loud crash, the speed of their fighting too incredible to be quiet by any definition. The whole fight so far at the top of the stair'd stand had lasted about fifteen seconds. Both fighters blurred slightly before they pushed off each other, skidding back from the point of contact. Rebekah's heel met the edge of the stairs and she nearly fell but managed to pull her torso forward enough to stabilize herself just as Pyro dived forward with a fist extended. Rebekah ducked under his fist and gave him her first solid punch; however she didn't draw it back. Rebekah then crashed her elbow into his chest, her forearm going across it horizontally, and then she shouldered him hard, her entire arm and shoulder pressed against his chest. She then pushed hard against him but Pyro drew her in as she became nearly horizontal with the ground and picked her up, upside down, with his arms wrapped around her. However, before he could pile-drive her, Rebekah managed to backhand him in the face with a fist, causing him to let go as she dropped to the ground on all fours, Pyro stumbling back a step. However, Pyro used this back step to try and ax kick against Rebekah who was nearly lying down on the ground just below him. Rebekah avoided this by pushing off the ground with both hands, into a standing position as Pyro's foot passed within a centimeter of her face. Pyro ended up in the splits as Rebekah stumbled back a little, but as she leant forward to try and kick him he managed to get onto his feet and block with his hands, push her foot back to the ground, and straighten up enough to catch her punch with his hands, causing him to skid back a foot or two. Rebekah pressed her attack with another punch from her other arm which was blocked again as Pyro continued to step back, trying to regain his balance. Rebekah stepped forward again and tried a straight kick to his midsection but Pyro threw his hips back, sacrificing his balance to avoid her kick just barely. Rebekah pulled her foot back and twisted into another rising straight kick that would have hit Pyro's face had he not thrown himself back, her foot passing over his face by an inch. Pyro's hands hit the ground and he flipped over to his feet again, his heels on the edge of the stairs as they had traveled all the way to the other side of the stand. As soon as Pyro's hands left the ground, with his feet firmly planted he tried to kick Rebekah in the chin with a Jump Kick of his own, which Rebekah blocked with her hands. However, Pyro used his other leg and tried to kick her face in again, but Rebekah's right forearm bore the brunt of the strike, causing Rebekah to take a step back as Pyro's feet hit the ground. Both fighters had their knees bent and arms outstretched, palms to the ceiling, and bent at the elbow. At the same time, Pyro whipped an arm around, like a windmill to try and elbow Rebekah on the skull but Rebekah had tried a left jab that caused the two arms to hit, canceling the attacks. Pyro pushed forward with another elbow strike that Rebekah blocked and she began to back step from the attack. Pyro tried to punch Rebekah in the gut but Rebekah just managed to catch the arm with both hands wrapping around his fist. Pyro used the fact that Rebekah was holding onto him to pull her closer and elbow her hard in the face, causing her to let go and skid back several feet, blood running from her nose. Rebekah regained her balance and immediately tipped it in the other direction, trying a windmill kick which Pyro ducked under causing her to land behind him with his back to her. Pyro turned in his ready stance, his eyes shining with excitement at the fight. Rebekah growled and he fighters launched at each other again, Rebekah's right fist meeting Pyro's left fist hard, knocking both hands downwards and causing the fighters to lean back from the recoil. Rebekah and Pyro leaned forward again and this time their opposite fists collided with even more force than before, causing the entire warehouse to shake with the intensity. Rebekah and Pyro struggled with each other, their fists pressed hard against each other as they fught for dominance. Finally Rebekah's strength failed her and Pyro's fist slid over hers and right into her already hurt nose with a sickening crunch, causing Rebekah to fall back while Pyro overextended himself. Rebekah's arms pin-wheeled as she slipped over the edge of the stairs and slipped down them before managing to regain her footing on the 3rd and 4th steps from the top, at the same time Pyro regained his balance.

"It that all you have, weakling?" Pyro shouted at her from his position as 'King of the Hill'.

"I'm just getting warmed up," Rebekah replied confidently, ignoring the blood dripping down her face from her now broken nose.

Rebekah then rushed up the four steps to Pyro's level and on the second step from the top she pushed off with her foot into a roundhouse kick that left her with her back turned. Pyro saw the attack and ruthlessly stepped on the heel of her foot as it approached and forced it to the ground before he planted his elbow in the crook of Rebekah's back and shoved her forward a step, using his forward momentum to throw a punch at her exposed back. It wasn't exposed for long though as Rebekah twisted round and caught his fist again, pushing it down and launching another roundhouse kick from stationary that Pyro simply leaned under as it passed over his bent head. As soon as it passed he jumped up with a spinning kick for Rebekah's head that she had to duck under however his other foot crashed into her chin and Rebekah had to take two steps back from the force of it. Pyro landed in a crouch with his back to her as she regained her footing and they began to run. Pyro seemed to run _away_ from Rebekah for three steps as she chased after him. What she didn't expect was for Pyro to bend over and kick back with one leg, causing her aching chin to be caught again by his foot. Rebekah's forward momentum caused her to keep moving forward as Pyro's right leg kept going, pulling his left leg up for a _second_ powerful heel to the chin; Rebekah was sure she heard something in her jaw crack. Pyro flipped forward onto his feet again as Rebekah fell to her knees and Pyro thrust a leg back into Rebekah's stomach mercilessly. Rebekah coughed hard and slid on her back, her knees to her chest as she coughed, trying to get air back into her lungs. Pyro leant over her, his expression showing how much he was enjoying this.

"Fucking hell…" Rebekah sputtered weakly.

"Come on now…" Pyro said condescendingly.

Rebekah growled and shot her legs out, striking his shins with shattering force, causing his feet to fly out from under him. Rebekah caught his arms and threw him to the side, onto the stairs that surrounded their platform, however Pyro grabbed her wrists and pulled her down too, over his shoulder and down to the very bottom where she hit the floor spine first, dust erupting from under her as she impact pulverized some of the concrete. The force caused Rebekah to bounce off of the floor and Pyro pushed off of the stairs in a bicycle kick to meet her. Just before impact Rebekah's eyes flashed and she suddenly vanished from underneath him. A whistling sound caused Pyro to look left and he saw Rebekah appear again, skidding back not five feet away. Pyro completed his flip and hit the floor heavily, kicking up even more concrete dust and further weakening the floor to the level below them. Rebekah suddenly whipped past Pyro and then shot up onto the steps halfway up in under a second to his growing excitement. Rebekah panted slightly, not used to having someone who could keep up with her speed while she fought. She wasn't going at full speed though so she could retain most of her inertia and keep from overbalancing after every hit. However, they were still moving faster than most people could dream of, but they were still capable of being followed by normal eyes.

"There you go!" Pyro shouted joyfully. "HOW ABOUT SOME MORE?!"

Rebekah pretended to think about it.

"Nope," she said with a smirk and a wink as Pyro frowned, wanting to test his adversary's full power. Pyro sighed.

"Okay…"

Suddenly he was gone in a blur of speed straight up to Rebekah's level, and then he was blurring past her with a kick to the side of her head, reappearing behind her just as she began to stumble from the hit. Pyro then rushed towards her and punched her in the back of the head before she could even turn and sent her sailing to the ground across the same step they were currently on. He grinned wildly as Rebekah's right eye clenched shut from the pain and she glowered at him from her open eye.

"Whoosh right?" Pyro asked.

He leapt forward with a kick that Rebekah ducked under as she got back up. As he landed, Rebekah sent a leg up in a back kick to the face that would have connected had he no punched down on the heel of her foot, pinning it to the ground. He then pulled himself forward while she was pinned and elbowed her in the back again, causing her to stumble forwards. Rebekah's eyes widened when Pyro reappeared in front of her, in midair with a knee rushing into her face. Rebekah took the full force of the unexpected blow and fell back, Pyro landing right in front of her, his hands shot out and grabbed her around the throat before he pulled her closer and head-butted her on her broken nose, her feet leaving the ground as she fell back. Pyro blurred behind her once again and kicked her in the back of the head, his foot continuing up above her as she bent and rolled forward in midair. His leg then shot back down and crashed into her spine, his heel connecting with the back of her head in the same spot. Rebekah met the step hard and the concrete was once again turned to dust from the force of the impact, causing her limp body to bounce off of it. Pyro blurred above her in a rush of speed, appearing several meters in the air, rushing down to meet her. Rebekah's eyes shot open and she blurred across the long step in a rush of the same speed, away from Pyro as he landed, Rebekah facing him as he straightened.

"You'll be dead if you don't take this seriously," Pyro growled at her.

"No thanks, I can take it without rushing around like a bullet on speed," Rebekah replied.

"Have it your way," Pyro chuckled.

He started towards her before blurring into high speed. What he didn't expect was to meet Rebekah's fist head-on. Pyro's body sailed past his head and his head was pulled along with it, his ears ringing from the punch between the eyes. He got it under control in under a tenth of a second and blurred above Rebekah, one leg outstretched downwards, aiming to crush her skull beneath his foot. Rebekah was bent forwards slightly and noticed his attack just as it touched her head, her fist raising up and driving its way right into his exposed crotch. Pyro's world exploded in a flash of blinding white light and pain as Rebekah pushed her fist harder against his family jewels and used the leverage to throw him down, before punching him in the gut and giving him a strong uppercut that left him airborne. Rebekah twisted through the air and just as her back turned, Pyro vanished again and reappeared moving towards Rebekah, which would mean he had went past her and then rushed towards her again faster than she could see. His outstretched foot met with her face and Rebekah cried out in pain as her already abused head took another blow… and then another as Pyro completed his turn and kicked her once again just above her eyes. He seemed smart enough to not kick her horn, lest his foot be speared on it. Rebekah hit the ground feet first as Pyro landed on one foot and turned the other into a third kick to her chest, causing her breasts to squeeze against her ribs in a fashion that was very painful. Pyro finished with a fourth and final kick to her abdomen that caused Rebekah to double over while stumbling back. Pyro didn't let her go far as he lowered his center of gravity before driving his elbow into her face again. Rebekah blacked out for a brief moment and landed on her back, laid flat out against the ground as she slid to a stop. The whole fight had lasted around fifty seconds now and Rebekah was in a lot of pain. Suddenly Pyro jumped forward, with the intention of stomping Rebekah, but she managed to ignore her pain and roll backwards, onto her hands. However, before she could pull her legs up, Pyro grabbed one and suddenly threw Rebekah as hard as he could. Rebekah blurred through the air with the speed she was hurled at. However, Pyro hadn't let go and Rebekah's flight turned into a downwards slam that kicked up dust and debris from the power of the slam. Once again the force was enough to bounce Rebekah into the air and Pyro hopped up to meet her as she landed on the step above them, Pyro standing on her stomach, his hands fisted into the shoulders of her top.

"Seriously though," he said with a growl. "I'm getting bored."

"I know," Rebekah chuckled, despite the great amount of agony she was in. "Fun, isn't it?"

Rebekah chuckled at this before she coughed from the pain her lungs were in.

"No, it isn't," Pyro replied with a sigh, his smile gone.

He got up and went around to Rebekah's head, before he grabbed two fistfuls of Rebekah's hair and dragged her up then threw her into the air straight above them. Pyro blurred into motion and appeared just above Rebekah, delivering a spinning kick that shot Rebekah diagonally downwards. Pyro blurred again and appeared on a step near where Rebekah was sailing past and delivered a devastating uppercut with his elbow to the back of her head and turned with the blow before he blurred past in at high speeds. He appeared on the same step she was level with and smacked her in the face with his forearm, before twisting round with a cruel left hook to the face once again, causing Rebekah's right eye to blacken darkly. Rebekah managed to turn so that she would land on her hands and feet but Pyro was in front of her again, his knee driving into her crushed nose and whipping her head back as she screamed in pain. _'I might have to do it… but I'd be even more vulnerable to counterattacks the faster I move,' _Rebekah though grimly. Pyro turned in midair and suddenly stomped on the crook of Rebekah's elbow, pinning her arm to the step they were on. He blurred down five steps and reached over, grabbing her by her hair, before he threw her at breakneck speeds over his shoulder and onto the step right in front of him, cracking the concrete underneath her. Rebekah bounced off the floor again and was met with a pair of kicks from the incredibly fast Entei-morph that left her legs on the ground before he blurred behind her again as her torso fell back, driving his elbow into the base of her skull and forcing her to her feet in a painful fashion. Pyro then drove his knee into her back, causing her to lift off the ground slightly; her eyes as wide as dinner plates. Pyro then flashed past back into her face with a punch to the chest. Rebekah could've sworn she felt him give her left breast a quick squeeze before he followed up with a punch to the face from his other arm. Rebekah sailed back but Pyro was faster and her head met his forearm hard as he appeared behind her again. Rebekah's feet dragged behind her and the force of the impact caused her to bend over, which Pyro used to appear, crouched under her like a coiled spring. His leg thrust upwards into her chest and Rebekah gasped as she sailed upwards. Pyro met her once again in midair and stomped brutally on her chest with both legs and crushed her into the step, causing her to lie in a curved recess shaped like her back. The floor under her was nothing but chips of concrete and Rebekah lay there, panting heavily. She had bruises and lumps and blood everywhere.

"You really should've used your power," Pyro stated as he stepped back, eyeing her. "Now it's over."

'_I have to use it then. I hate being this weak without my speed… but he won't make a fool of me, ANYMORE!!!'_ Rebekah was lying down one second and before that second had past she was on her feet with a loud 'BANG', red energy roiling over her body like lightning for a second as Pyro shielded his eyes from the bright flash. Rebekah suddenly flashed backwards into the wall almost twenty meters behind them, crouched against the surface. The next moment she shot at Pyro like a cannon… no, like a supersonic missile, driving her fist into his face with a satisfying crunch. If one had freeze-framed the move, they would have seen two afterimages of Rebekah behind her from the speed she moved at. Pyro's neck nearly broke on impact and as such, he was stunned for a short time allowing Rebekah to turn the tables on him. She flashed past him and behind him, her legs up and bent to her chest. She drove her knee into the back of his neck before she flashed into movement again, this time appearing in front of him, driving her elbow into his abdomen. Then Rebekah blurred around and into the air slight, clasping her hands together into a big fist and hammering down onto Pyro's skull. The force of the blow caused Rebekah to bend over like Pyro but she flashed past him till they were back to back, a foot apart. Rebekah hopped and mule kicked Pyro in the spine before she flashed thirty meters away, against the face of a high ledge, crouched against the vertical surface like before. Quickly pushing off, she blasted towards Pyro and her leg drove its way into the back of his head at insane speeds, causing him to fall forwards with Rebekah landing in front of him, her face set in proud determination. Before he could kiss the concrete, Rebekah's knee met his chin and his neck was nearly broken again at the force it was bent back. He was nearly at his feet when Rebekah flashed around him and jabbed him in the back of the head again, causing his right foot to step forward, so that he was standing once again. Rebekah flashed past again, grabbing his ankle as she did so, pulling his legs out from under him, before she flashed above him and drove both her feet into his jaw with tremendous force. He barely fell an inch before his head struck the step, the rest of his body in the air behind him. Rebekah used this to grab his ankles and flip him round, driving his head into the ground on the other side of her and then she turned and hurled him right of the steps into the air, his body limp with shock. Rebekah appeared just above him, slamming a foot down on his stomach, causing him to bend in midair before her other foot met his chin and sent him sailing even further. What happened next was so fast that Pyro could barely keep up with the injuries he was receiving. Rebekah flashed beneath him, punching upwards into his back. She then vanished and reappeared, punching into his stomach above him, then she punched his back, then his stomach, then his back,thenhisstomach,thenhisback,thenhisstomach,thenhisback,thenhi- faster and faster until all that could be heard was akin to a pneumatic drill as Rebekah bounced off the floor and ceiling at supersonic speeds, striking Pyro with each pass. Finally after two seconds and around forty strikes, Rebekah plowed him into the ground near the stairs and jumped into the air, rolling. She shot down with both feet but Pyro managed to flash to the side, avoiding the strike. He rolled over as Rebekah leapt in the opposite direction, being that she was near the wall. Pyro rolled to his feet as she crouched so low against the wall that her chin was nearly touching her toes, before she rocketed at him, roaring in anger. The punch he received was stronger than any other and expanding rings of air emanated from her fist as it met his face faster than the speed of sound, the sudden deceleration causing supersonic rings to pass Pyro. Rebekah and Pyro flew back a good fifteen meters, connected by fist and face as their flight slowed dramatically. Rebekah pushed harder and Pyro was sent sailing away from her, sliding across the smooth concrete floor, past the concrete ladder that led to the ground floor. _'This fight just got hot…' _Rebekah thought, smirking. Pyro stopped himself using his hands and rolled back, his feet touching against the wall as he stepped off it and onto the floor, shaken. He rushed towards Rebekah and jumped, leaping over the concrete ladder to drop directly on her. Rebekah slid around him, just barely avoiding the sneaky attack, before she stepped back onto the ladder and pushed off it, into the air above Pyro, flipping round and round. She landed with a two-foot stomp on Pyro's back just as he was getting up, causing him to roar in pain. Rebekah jumped off him, onto the bottom step of the large rectangular stair'd platform and flipped again, aiming to stomp him one more time. Pyro managed to get up just in time to step back or stumble… away from the strike, which caused Rebekah to become crouched on the ground. She used the tension in her crouch to spring at him again, spinning in for a roundhouse kick, which he avoiding by ducking down and stumbling forward as Rebekah's kick connected with the concrete ladder. Rebekah backflipped off the structure and landed hand-first behind Pyro, who was still stumbling away. Rebekah lashed out with one leg into his lower back as the other stabilized her balance. Pyro fell to the ground, sliding along a little, his torso resting on the bottom step of the stairs. He got up and stumbled forward while Rebekah, her back turned, flashed in front of him, her elbow connecting with the top of his skull. The blow sent him face-first into the ground, sliding back a few inches. Rebekah calmly stepped over to him and dragged him up by his shoulders until he was dangling just above her, her eyes boring into his.

"Now I'm serious," she said coldly.

"Serious…" Pyro muttered, blood dripping from his burst lips.

Suddenly his arms shot up, between hers and wrenched them apart, causing him to drop to his feet before he pushed Rebekah back and attempted to axe kick her head. Rebekah fell back and reached up with one leg, pressing against Pyro's as hard as she could. Rebekah's arms were pressed against the floor below her for leverage as she managed to overpower Pyro and push him back with her foot. As they drifted through the air backwards briefly Rebekah and Pyro punched each other's fists, kicked each other's legs and punched their fists together again. As they landed Pyro tried another kick only for Rebekah to grab it and pull it backwards, causing Pyro to lose his footing. Rebekah then reached above her head with one leg and knocked Pyro to the ground with a small tap. She leapt straight up, spinning one, twice, three times before she hurtled back down, aiming to crush Pyro under her boots. Pyro managed to get up and dive out of the way as Rebekah's stomp tore away the concrete floor beneath her and she landed on a raised platform on the ground floor.

"Shit!" Pyro and Rebekah exclaimed at the same time. "I/She missed!"

Rebekah ignored this afterwards and shot up back through the think hole she made, kicking her legs out to catch the lip and pull herself back onto the solid first floor. Pyro rushed her and attempted another ax kick that Rebekah caught with both hands and bent down under the force. Suddenly she tightened her grip and slammed Pyro into the floor next to her, causing more spider web cracks. Rebekah's throw had caused her body weight to shift downwards and the tension was used to let her jump up and stomp back down, however Pyro had once again rolled out of the way and her feet impacted against the shattered floor where he used to lie. Rebekah jumped backwards and followed Pyro, delivering a chain of 5 kicks in quick succession. They landed on the floor and Rebekah bent down before delivering a final kick to the chin from knee height. Pyro stumbled back as Rebekah kicked him in the midsection whilst he dropped back down, and then kicked him again, causing Pyro to hang on her raised leg limply. Rebekah shook him off and upwards, going down onto her hands before she kicked him even further into the air, in a hand stand. The force of the kick caused Rebekah's hands to leave the ground and for her to flip back upright in midair. Suddenly Rebekah flashed away and above Pyro and ax kicked him into the ground so hard that he went straight through the floor and into an observation platform, built onto the ceiling of the ground floor. Pyro groaned in pain but got up quickly as Rebekah dropped into the room, ducking under a spinning double kick from him which ended with his leg smashing down on her raised arms to block his strike with. Rebekah ended up in a sitting position from the force, which Pyro used to step onto her raised arm and shove her forwards, stepping over her like a turnstile. He grabbed her by the scruff of her top and the hem of her combats and thrust her backwards, headfirst into the wall of the observation room. Rebekah's head went straight through the thin layer of concrete, only a foot thick and she was stunned by the impact for a moment. Pyro gasped for breath as he stepped back and got into a ready stance, waiting for Rebekah to come at him again, which she did. With a growl that grew into a shout of rage, Rebekah, used her arms to split the wall along the hole her head made, which combined with the weakened floor, made it an unsafe place to be. Rebekah turned and whipped a kick at Pyro who ducked, only to be flattened against the floor by Rebekah's other leg. Rebekah stomped on his back once before she jumped and tried to stomp again; only for him to roll out of the way. The force of the stomp caused the floor and half of one wall of the room to fall away, the two fighters dropping to the ground. They jumped and kicked one another, causing them both to fall to the ground, before they shot back up, hands meeting in a furious grappling contest. Rebekah suddenly pulled and head butted Pyro in the face, causing him to stumble back. He turned and jumped towards the wall. Suddenly his form began to blur and afterimage like he was moving from side to side extremely fast. Rebekah rocketed after him and punched at him with a loud bang, only for her to see another Pyro pressed against the wall, the other at the receiving end of her fist. This was the power of **Substitute**. Rebekah looked warily as the two Pyro's gave her matching grins. Suddenly the one on the wall leapt forward and punched her while the one she had punched dropped to the floor and grabbed her ankles, dragging her down and slamming her into the floor, and then into the wall behind him, and then slammed her into the floor again. One Pyro began to run back from Rebekah as the other jumped towards her to stomp on her, but Rebekah got up and stumbled forward out of the way. The Pyro that ran suddenly rushed back at her while the one on his hands and knees just behind her tried to kicks her legs out with both of his. Rebekah managed to hop over this attack but the other Pyro used the chance to jump over his double and kick her in the stomach, away from the wall and into a pile of crates. Rebekah failed to black out due to the splinters that found themselves in her back. She looked up and saw one of the Pyro's approaching quickly and kicked at one of his legs, knocking him into her. With a quick punch, she pushed him off and into the other Pyro, distracting him as she got to her feet.

Rebekah rushed away from the pair to formulate a plan as they followed her relentlessly. She dropped down a ledge near a railing and turned to face the Pyro pair, one of them dropping down and the other sliding down the railing on the balls of his feet. Rebekah dodged the first ones charge and kicked him away, using the force to spin and hit the other in the opposite direction. The fighting brought them to a pair of raised platforms with the fighters at their base. Rebekah ducked another punch and grabbed the offending limb, throwing the Pyro over her should and into the support of one of the platforms, one leg kicking the other into the opposite support. With a shout, she spun the Pyro in her hands and slammed him into the second, causing the support behind them to snap. With a great creaking groan, the platforms fell and Rebekah had to flash out of the way before she was crushed. Only one Pyro got out of the way in time, while the other was crushed beneath the pile of rubble and twisted metal. Unfortunately, it didn't matter which so long as one survived, because with **Substitute**, it didn't matter if the original took the hit, the Substitute would be the one to die in its place, while the original survived. _'One down, one to go,' _Rebekah thought. With a leap, she and Pyro separated over the cloud of dust and slammed together with intense force, repelling each other back again. Suddenly, they rushed together out of midair and became a blur of crashing limbs as they blurred though the air and into a hallway, crashing off the walls and ceiling until the appeared out of the melee, their fists pushing against each other. With a roar of displaced air they vanished and met with a loud bang, then vanished and met again in a different place with a loud bang. They crashed together like this all over the ground floor, tearing up walls, the floor and any other objects they came into contact with. With a final crash they separated on the first floor near the stair platform, panting heavily. Rebekah and Pyro rushed at each other before Pyro suddenly used **Substitute** to split into eight different Pyro's. Unfortunately for him the Substitutes and himself were greatly weakened as a result, each having only one eighth of their total strength left. Rebekah met the first with a cry, breaking his neck with a roundhouse kick. As if in slow motion, Rebekah punched another in the nose, sending shards of cartilage into his brain, killing him instantly. She grabbed this Pyro and hurled it into the legs of another, jumping up and curb-stomping the fallen clone. She backflipped over another and twisted his neck as she did so, killing the fourth. She grabbed a stray metal pole that had come loose during their clash and stabbed it into the throat of another Pyro, before she pulled on the pole and shoved it through the back of the sixth, pinning them together on the pole. She let go and rolled forward, kicking into the chin of the seventh Pyro, flipping onto her feet with a rising uppercut for the eighth. She backflipped and broke the spine of the seventh Pyro as she landed on him, the back of his head meeting his heels. She finally grabbed onto the ankles of the final Pyro and with a final, exhausted heave, whipped him like a rope face-first into the floor.

"How's that?" she gasped.

Pyro groaned in exhausted pain, unable to move after the pounding and splitting of his strength. He would recover if he lived, but Rebekah knew she would have to deal with him there and then. She got up off her knees and made towards him before something landed in front of her with a metallic clang. She looked down and spotted a strange metal cylinder. Unable to comprehend due to her exhaustion, Rebekah was taken completely by surprise when the flashbang went off, blinding and deafening her for several minutes. When her vision finally cleared up, Rebekah was alone and Pyro was gone. Whoever had rescued him obviously didn't have the strength or the weaponry to take her out even while she was weakened. Rebekah panted for a minute before she finally collapsed onto her backside and sighed. Pyro would be back, she knew… but she would be ready for him when he did. Rebekah took a look around the building, noting all the damage that had been done.

"I'm not cleaning this place," she muttered as she got up and left.

_Flashback, Beginning of the fight, Outside…_

Rebekah had gone into the building not a minute ago and Angel was already on edge about the whole situation. Sabre was also very tense but for a different reason, as was Ash who had decided to go with them for a little extra protection. She was worried for Rebekah, not knowing what Team Rocket might pull out to capture or eliminate them. They all knew that Mizu was on the roof, using her senses to determine if Rebekah was in trouble but nothing beat a visual confirmation in Angel's eyes. Jake stood beside Angel, comforting her with his presence, knowing that Angel needed him now more than ever. Just then, Angel heard a crash inside the building and suddenly her danger senses went into overdrive. She dived to the side, narrowly avoiding a twister of wind that erupted from the ground where she had been standing. She could hear Jake shouting but it was incomprehensible to her over the roaring wind as she took in the new figure standing before her. When she recognized it she realized that Team Rocket had a lot to answer for…

"Hello there, I'm Bellum. A pleasure to meet you 'Project: Angel', but I'm afraid I have to kill you now," the humanoid, obviously female Suicune said to her with a pleasant smile.

Bellum allowed Angel to get to her feet before she vanished in a whirl of speed like Rebekah could and smacked Angel across her jaw. Angel flew backwards and struck a tree hard enough to crush the bark behind her, leaving her out of breath and in a lot of pain. Bellum smiled and waited for Angel, obviously having fun with her. Angel grimaced against the pain and managed to get to her feet. It took a little effort but she managed to release her wings after shedding her coat, revealing her new top. The black top had no back, instead it had a turtle neck and no sleeves that kept it decent but her wings had plenty room to free themselves and flex comfortably. Angel jumped and took off, reveling in her chance to take to the skies for a long time. She looked over to Sabre and saw that she was also occupied.

"You must be that Pikachu those losers Jessie and James spent four years trying to capture. Now look at you," a humanoid Raikou much like Pyro stated smugly.

"Who might you be?" Sabre asked warily.

"Call me Nimbus. I make it a point to let my victims know the name of their killer," Stratus said coolly.

Sabre watched carefully as the now-named pokemorph eyed her up and down with a perverted leer. His long-sleeved black top and black combats helped him blend into the dark background but Sabre's eyes could see him clearly. What she couldn't see was the metallic reflection of his hidden weapons, which he decided to let out at that moment. With a _'shiiiing'_ a small circular saw blade on a pair of rods appeared out of Nimbus' sleeve and began to spin rapidly, becoming a solid circle of motion that would easily cut through Sabre's nearly bullet-proof skin. Out of his other sleeve shot a frame with multiple cutting edges, like a bunch of curved swords stuck together. Sabre wasted no time in bringing out her own, in comparison, somewhat measly combat knife. However Sabre had a plan to even the odds… with a flick of her wrist she crouched and plunged her knife straight into the ground and waited for a few seconds, her eyes closed in concentration. Nimbus raised an eyebrow which turned into a look of intrigue as the ground started shaking like a small scale earthquake was taking place. Sabre grinned and pulled out the knife only for it to rip apart the ground around it as a huge broadsword came out instead!

"Oooooh yeah!" Sabre muttered as she pulled her new weapon up into a guarding position, slightly winded by the effort of attracting all the metal traces underground onto her knife and fusing them in place.

The knife was now huge and slightly sharper than it was before it changed. Sabre forgot about admiring details and whipped the sword to her side as she rushed forwards to cut Nimbus in half. The Raikou-morph did the same with his weapons and they met each other with a sharp crash of impacting metal. Sabre's first strike was with her knife-turned-sword against Nimbus' spinning saw blade, which threw sparks everywhere as both blades began to dull. Sabre's other arm came in for a punch only to be blocked by his razor blades on his other arm, which thankfully didn't manage to cut Sabre's arm before she pulled back. What began next was like a blurring dance of death between the two morphs as their arms and entire upper bodies began to weave around everywhere as they followed through with attacks that were only visible due to the massive amount of sparks began kicked up. Even their feet started to move as they began to circle each other, faster and faster until there was nothing but a pair of yellow and silver blurs.

"Unreal…" Ash murmured as he watched them battle it out.

With a final rather loud metallic clang the two fighters broke apart, barely winded by the exchange. However, their weapons were not faring so well. Sabre's swords had become blunt and chipped, worthless as weapons now and she reverted her larger sword back into her knife, sheathing both weapons away in their magnetic holders. Meanwhile Nimbus' weapons were completely destroyed, the circular saw had stopped and all its cutting edges had been blown off, leaving a slightly jagged circle left. His razor blades also fared badly, many of the being cut in half while others and huge chunks of their cutting edges missing. Nimbus uncoupled his weapons and let them fall to the floor as he eyes Sabre warily. She was much more proficient with her weapons than he was with his, which had surprised him.

"Well I guess its time for me to bring out my next weapon," he stated simply in his rough voice.

Sabre suddenly screamed in pain as he began to shock her with a Thunderbolt. Having no warning left Sabre ill-equipped to deal with the huge influx of foreign electricity. Nimbus' smirk grew wider as Sabre was forced to one knee by his power, knowing that soon he'd be hailed as one of the most powerful members of Team Rocket for killing the original 'Project Thunder'. Nimbus was expecting it to be over soon for him, however he didn't know Sabre all that well otherwise he'd have known to keep his guard up. He was suddenly awakened from his premature thoughts by a powerful bolt of lightning blasting off his feet from Sabre's direction. Sabre had leant back and balanced on her tail, using it as a ground to earth her against the overwhelming current. She bounced to her feet as Stratus got up and she let out an almost feral growl at him.

"Now it's time for you to see one of my best attacks," Sabre exclaimed.

With that she spread her legs wider apart and leant over slightly, as if preparing to charge at him. What he didn't expect was for her form to explode with electricity, wreathing her in a cloak of charged electrons. Sabre was barely visible under the sheer amount of electricity covering her, her out line blurred by the energy all around her. With a grin, Sabre put her arms up and out to either side. She tensed slightly, raising her arms a little before she rocketed forwards, thrusting her arms to her sides for extra starting momentum. Nimbus was shocked most of all by how _fast_ she moved, with the lightning coursing through his body being a close second. Sabre had been around sixty metres away and she had crossed it in around a single second. She slowed just before impact and the cloak of electricity faded from view as she threw a punch at his midsection. Just as it connected she let out a cry into the night.

"_**Volt Tackle!!!"**_

The punch hurt but the accumulated electricity from the cloak of energy came rushing back and rushed through her arm and into him all at once in a spectacular eruption of electricity. Sabre's forward momentum let her also barge into him shoulder first as even more electricity exploded instantly into Nimbus while she was against him. However before she could do anymore damage a blast of water knocked her off her opponent, courtesy of Bellum who then had to dodge a torrent of Angel's _**Ice Needle**_ attack. Sabre and Angel manoeuvred their battles until they were much closer to one another, fighting side by side. Nimbus had given up on fighting with electrical powers and Sabre was forced to fight him hand-to-hand, lest he demolish her with his superior skills in martial arts. Every super-powered punch she threw at him was expertly parried or outright dodged. Nimbus wasn't fool enough to try and block them. Sabre's arms were covered in bruises from blocking and parrying his attacks and more than once he'd purposefully stepped on her tail. Angel herself was starting to have trouble against Bellum. The Suicune-morph had clipped her wings early into their fight with her ability to manipulate the winds, causing Angel to stay on the ground or be completely blown away as she learned the first time, which had given Bellum the chance to cover Nimbus. Now Bellum was kicking Angel's ass without mercy. Angel blocked yet another lightning fast kick with both hands and stumbled back, unable to cope with Bellum's horrific speed. She was as fast as Rebekah on a bad day and not quite as agile so Angel was spared a bit of difficulty. She was beginning to lose her patience however.

"For the love of Lugia, stay still!" Angel screeched.

She swung at Bellum's face with a fist and Bellum, who was easily able to tell Angel's next attacks as she telegraphed them, prepared to catch it. What she wasn't expecting was for Angel's fist to glow a bright sky blue and suddenly become enveloped in a huge fist made of ice! Angel's enlarged hand crashed into Bellum's side like a speeding car and shattered from the force of the hit. Bellum was knocked off her feet by the blow and rolled across the ground before alighting to her feet again, injured but not slowed. Angel nearly screamed in frustration as she and Sabre were unable to defeat these monsters. Jake was busy making sure no one took a pot-shot at Ash and Mizu was meditating on the roof of the warehouse to sense what was going on inside. Angel was once again interrupted by a high speed kick to the sternum that made her breath rush out of her lungs. Angel flew back and hit the ground, rasping for breath. As she was temporarily incapacitated, Bellum aided Nimbus against Sabre and their combined attacks proved to be too much for the powerhouse woman. With a final roundhouse kick to Sabre's head, she flew back and landed on top of Angel, furthering Angel's distress. Jake scowled, not knowing what to do. He could try to save them and leave Ash exposed and more than likely killed, or he could stay and watch as they killed his love and her best friend. Normally he'd have no problem leaving Ash but he couldn't handle being responsible for a friend's death and so he was rooted in place by indecision. Meanwhile Bellum and Nimbus sauntered over to Angel, who had managed to crawl out from under Sabre. Bellum kicked her in the stomach as she gasped for breath on her hands and knees', grinning as Angel was rolled onto her back. Bellum's arm began to glow like Angel's had and a glittering spear of ice formed on her arm, coming to a deadly point.

"Now it ends. I was hoping you'd last longer… but still, you're mostly human," Bellum sighed, sneering.

"Time for the executions to begin," Nimbus said smugly.

Bellum placed the point of her spear arm against Angel's jugular and prepared to thrust it forward, as Nimbus got ready to simply stomp on Sabre's head. Bellum raised the spear slightly, tensing to plunge it downwards into Angel's neck and through her spinal column, while Nimbus put one foot on Sabre's forehead while the poke-woman was still unconscious. Jake watched in horror, he didn't have the necessary control of his powers to get there in time before two of his friends were killed… well, one friend and one soul mate. Jake hadn't told Angel yet but he thought she was the only one for him. He couldn't imagine himself with any other woman because she was his whole world. Without her… Jake's eyes began to fill with tears as he glared hatefully at the Team Rocket scum. Jake felt in his pocket and his fingers closed around the small velvet box, tears streaming down his face. _'Not now… not when we were… so close…'_ he thought.

"Say goodbye!" Bellum squealed in a sing-song voice.

"Goodbye… Jake-,"

**BOOM!!!**

The ground shook from the force of the explosion somewhere within the warehouse behind them. Bellum and Nimbus shared a look as more blasts shook the ground, becoming more intense and faster in frequency. Without another word Bellum and Nimbus ran for the building and hurled a few smoke grenades and flash bangs through the upper and lower windows from hidden pockets, shattering the glass. After a few seconds they jumped in and everything went quiet. Jake was hardly willing to believe their luck and together with Ash he rushed over to Angel and Sabre's side. Kneeling down, he quickly gave Angel a check over, raising the hem of her top up to the bottom of her breasts so that he could inspect her abdomen. It was a mess of bruises but there didn't seem to be anything wrong internally from what he could see. Ash had a harder time getting a diagnosis from Sabre as her skin was covered by her fur. A few seconds later there was a flash and Mizu was before them, holding onto a highly disorientated Rebekah, who was continually rubbing her ears.

"What happened?! Are you alright?" Ash exclaimed, worried about his sister.

"**WHAT???" **Rebekah shouted. **"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!"**

"Ouch…" Sabre grumbled as her sensitive ears began to ache. "Where did Team Rocket go?"

"They're gone. They've escaped," Mizu declared sourly.

"You mean… we lost?" Angel mumbled as she sat up painfully.

"It would appear so. They would've won had Rebekah not distracted the other two with her fight… which she won by the way," Mizu replied, brightening slightly.

Rebekah blushed at the sudden wave of praise that washed over her from her friends. She turned tomato red when Sabre got up and kissed her lips softly while stroking her face with a soft, furry hand. Angel laughed a little but still seemed downcast about the whole situation. Angel and Sabre had come perilously close to losing their lives against a superior foe and it was only thanks to Rebekah's disobeying of Angel's advice that had saved them when she began to exceed the speed limit Angel had set to prevent the-…

_Whoooooooooooo…_

"Sirens!" Jake exclaimed. "We have to get out of here!"

"Leave it to me guys," Mizu said shakily, trying to stay calm. "_**Teleportation…**_"

0o0o0o0o0o0

"You guys look like shit…"

Mizu gave Gary a sour look, which caused him to sweatdrop. While Gary began apologizing to Mizu, Angel and Sabre were talking to Rebekah about her fight with the third member of what appeared to be their replacements in Team Rocket. When Rebekah came to what she had learned she clammed up and refused to say anymore. Angel and Sabre frowned at her sudden change in demeanour while the three of them continued cleaning themselves up in the spacious bathroom, the door open so that they could keep an eye on the others as well. Angel had raised the hem of her top so that she could rub a soothing cream over her toned abdomen, ignoring the red faces of the men behind her.

"Rebekah? What did this 'Pyro' say?" Sabre asked, her voice tinged with concern.

Rebekah mumbled something so quiet that even Sabre couldn't hear her.

"I'm sorry?"

"He said… I'm not a real person…" Rebekah whispered, her head facing the floor. "Pyro told me… he told me… I… I was m-made by T-Team Rocket in a t-test tube!!! I wasn't born a normal person; I was created in a lab! I was meant as a prototype, an experiment! I doubt they even expected me to grow up as much as I have! I'm not natural, I'm not REAL, I'm-."

Rebekah was silenced abruptly by Sabre's hand leaving her face, a sharp crack echoing around the room. Rebekah's left cheek began to redden and Sabre frowned down at the distraught teenager. Tears were dripping down both Sabre's and Rebekah's faces; their pain evident in their eyes.

"Rebekah… knowing this, do you really think we'd see you any differently?" Sabre asked; her voice thick with tears. "I told you before that I don't really know how I feel, but I do know that I can't let you destroy yourself over this. I care about you… so much that it hurts to see you in this much pain… if that isn't love then I'm not sure what is. To quote a forgotten friend: 'the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant. It's what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.' Now tell me Rebekah, who are you?"

Rebekah's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, shining with unshed tears at Sabre's moving speech. She remembered all the times that Sabre went out of her way to cheer her up; she swallowed and tried to form a response while Sabre waited patiently. _'Who… am I?'_ she thought. _'I… I… I am…' _The longer Rebekah thought about it, the more confused she became. She couldn't really think of anything that really defined her as a person, besides her obvious inhuman features. As she thought, her gaze drifted to Sabre who was still waiting patiently, a small encouraging smile on her lips. Sudden it struck Rebekah like a heavenly bolt of lightning.

"Someone who loves you…" she whispered.

Everyone held back the urge to 'awwwh' as Rebekah and Sabre slowly embraced, tears streaming down Rebekah's cheeks as she felt Sabre's overwhelming love caress her heart. The scene was almost beautiful, if it weren't for the fact that Rebekah's face was a mess of blood and bruises, and Sabre was still shaking a little from the beat-down she had received, her bruises invisible underneath her soft fur. As they cuddled, Sabre slowly morphed into her human-form, ignoring the sharp gasps of horror from her friends. Her entire right side was nothing but a mess of black and blue bruising; there was not a single bit of normal-coloured skin. Angel was shocked as well, more so than any of the others. Sabre had always been the immovable juggernaut, tough and dependable… but seeing her in that condition made Angel realise just how big a threat these new pokemorphs were. Worse still was that they didn't have injuries nearly as bad as hers or her friends, besides Pyro. Even though they were badly injured and had a few broken bones, Angel knew she and her friends had to leave as soon as possible. Fortunately Jake seemed to read her thoughts.

"Guys, I know you're all exhausted and hurt but we need to move out, right now. Team Rocket is probably already regrouping and we need to stay under the radar until things calm down a little," he said seriously.

Mizu nodded shortly, already thinking ahead.

"I can teleport us all about five miles out of the city but then I'll have to rest for a day or two, it's never wise to use that much energy in one go…" she trailed off, leaving out a very important detail that no one else knew about.

Fortunately or not, no one else noticed her omission and started gathering their things together. The team moved quickly and efficiently until they were all ready to go, standing in a circle around Mizu as she closed her eyes. She raised one arm towards the ceiling and everyone watched in awe as a purple glow enveloped her hand, shifting and swirling like a miasma of energy. Mizu opened her eyes, which were now glowing the same colour as her outstretched hand and with a single word the glow on her palm expanded suddenly until it covered the entire group before rapidly shrinking into nothing, leaving no one behind.

Angel blinked, her mind racing to keep up with her eyes as the scene shifted instantly from the hotel room to a small clearing in the forest. After a few seconds she was cognitive and looked around, seeing that everyone had made it safely. Mizu was panting for breath, her face and forehead damp with sweat as the usage of so much energy took its toll on her. Gary saw her plight and reached over, pulling her arm over his shoulder until she was leaning against him comfortably. Mizu blinked a little and gave a small smile up to him, kissing his cheek gently. Gary blushed and tried to ignore Ash's snickering as he and May watched. Jake was already looking around, trying to find their location. After a few minutes he seemed to work everything out and, with a sharp whistle, everyone began to follow him north. Angel limped up until she was walking in step with Jake and gave him a meaningful look. Jake noticed her gaze and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"We're heading to Violet City, which is closest to us now. Hopefully it'll take Team Rocket a while to realize we've left Cherrygrove," he explained.

"I see. Our holiday was cut short wasn't it? I wish I'd gotten one more day at the beach," Angel replied lightly, winking at Jake.

The Ditto-morph instantly remembered the form-fitting swimsuit Angel had worn and a small trickle of blood began flowing from his nose as his cheeks reddened. Angel didn't notice as she had fallen slightly behind due to her bruised ankle. Sabre and Rebekah were walking hand in hand behind them, revelling in the closeness they had. It was still dark and the team decided after a while that they should keep travelling under the cover of night before resting. May complained about walking in the dark but Ash managed to quieten his girlfriend, claiming that Team Rocket could still be around and that she could alert them to their presence. May wisely shut up after that and the group continued to walk in tense, paranoid silence towards their next destination, unsure if they'd be safe or not.

_3 hours later…_

Eventually the team managed to reach a Pokemon Centre, about half a day's walk from Violet City, along the dirt path they had been walking along. The warm light from coming from within was too inviting to pass up and Angel concluded that they should rest up and let their injuries heal some more. Walking in, the lobby went silent as late night trainers turned to the new arrivals. Most were disturbed at the physical state of three of them while others were curious as to why such a large group of people had walked in at once. Ignoring the curious glances, Angel and her friends dropped off any and all pokemon they were holding onto for a routine check-up to the Chansey working at the reception desk. Clearly Nurse Joy had turned in for the night, which prompted Ash to look at the clock. _'2:17am?! We've been walking all night!' _he thought incredulously. The other trainers eventually lost interest in the group; there was nothing too special about them besides the near-matching jackets they all wore. The tall blonde woman was also quite beautiful, which caused the men to leer and the women to glare at her.

"Let's see if there are any rooms free, I need to sleep," Mizu said quietly, her eyes dull and dark around the edges.

"I have to agree, I'm beat…" Gary muttered, ending his sentence with a loud yawn that spread to some of the others. They were contagious, honestly.

Angel glanced worriedly at Mizu. Though no one else seemed to have noticed, Mizu breathing was rapid and slightly ragged, as if she'd run the full distance between their current location and Cherrygrove. She shook it out of her mind, remembering that Mizu had expended a lot of energy to move them all at once such a great distance. Angel and Jake immediately stuck together, declaring their intent to room with each other. Angel noticed that all the other couples were sticking together and she began to frown slightly. It wouldn't do for their enemies to use their relationships with one another against them. Angel knew from experience what crazy things people would do for love, remembering all those years ago when Jake threatened to disembowel some nurses so that they would treat her injuries after her fight with Ross. She was still oblivious as to her prosthetic foot, having been denied access to any medical reports during her captivity. All she thought she knew was that if it weren't for Jake then she'd be unable to walk properly ever again. Angel derailed her train of thought, blinking blankly as she heard faint screams. Jake had just shaken her lightly, making Angel blush that she'd spaced out in the middle of the lobby. All the others had vanished to their rooms and Jake was holding up their room key to her face. Suddenly Angel grinned, her eyes narrowing suspiciously as she leered at Jake.

"What?..."

Jake yelped when Angel grabbed him by the front of his jacket and vanished down the hallway towards the rooms, neither of them hearing some of the trainers still up muttering 'lucky bastard'. Angel quickly located their room and opened the door, almost throwing Jake inside. She sauntered in after him, slyly locking the door behind her. Jake looked up at her from his position on the side of the double bed, wondering what had gotten into Angel. The angelic teen however, was already fantasizing about what she was planning to do in just a few moments, so much so that Jake felt compelled to snap her out of it.

"Umm… Angel?"

Angel blinked, remembering where she was. She smiled and gave Jake a very obvious and sexy look, making him realize just what she wanted. _'Hypocrit…' _was his first thought as he remembered her opinion on relationships inside their team, however he shook away that thought as Angel began to move. Angel walked over, her hips swaying with each step, memorizing Jake as she sat down next to him. Jake blushed before leaning towards Angel and kissing her passionately on the lips, smiling shyly as he broke contact. Angel took the initiative and leaned back in, kissing him again while unzipping his customary black jacket, while Jake finally started kissing back and their tongues battled for dominance, thin tendrils of saliva dripping down from their mouths, ignored by both of them. As soon as Jake's jacket was off Angel started removing his shirt, as Jake, getting the idea started undoing Angel's jacket and loosened her black jeans. Jake then reached in and held her by the waist, her skin soft and warm under his hands, proving that she was the one for him. Angel had never once felt cold to him ever since they first met. Angel finally succeeded in getting Jake's shirt off and caressed his surprisingly muscular chest; he really didn't look that well built with his jacket on all the time. Then again he could be as muscular as he wanted but Angel was particularly attracted to him at that moment.

Jake kissed down her jaw line and down her neck stopping just above her collar bone and sucking gently, eliciting a moan from Angel. Jake suddenly removed his hands from her getting a groan of frustration, but she had no complaints when he pulled off her shirt and jeans leaving her in a lacy black bra and a now thoroughly wet matching set of panties. Angel, not to be outdone quickly pulled off Jake's pants leaving him in boxers with a blue feather pattern on them.

"Cute," was all that Angel said before she began kissing Jake again.

Jake reached behind her with one hand and unclipped her bra while gently massaging her left breast and used his other hand to throw the bra into one corner, before he started focusing on Angel's magnificent tits, they were overflowing in his hands, but they were firm yet still soft with light pink nipples that hardened to the touch. Jake licked the warm flesh of her breasts and sucked on her nipple, gently biting every now and then. Very aroused, Angel moaned loudly when he bit down too hard purely by accident, making him pause. However it was that which made him realize she liked the pain… he didn't know how much but she liked it.

Jake increased the pressure on her hard nipples making her moan louder while grinding her crotch into his thigh, leaving a glistening trail of her sweet juices where ever she went. Jake paused for a moment to slowly pull down Angel's black cotton panties, revealing her soaking pussy to him. Jake finally had enough and lifted her off him, laying her down on her back with her legs bent at the knee and slightly spread. Seeing Angel in such a sexy position made Jake's blood boil as Angel pouted cutely. Jake kissed her gently on the lips, sucking on her bottom lip briefly and then began kissing his way down her body, nipping her with his teeth every now and then, biting each of her nipples in turn and then blowing softly on them before continuing on his journey south.

Angel moaned when he reached her junction but groaned in frustration when he avoided her most sensitive areas. Jake loved her taste but loved teasing her more, he began to lick gently, barely touching her, then plunge his tongue into her and remove it just as suddenly, this went on for a minute or two before Angel began panting, a light sweat making her pale skin glisten sensually.

"Quit… teasing and… do it properly," she gasped, trying to speak through her moans of pleasure.

"Beg…" was her only reply.

Angel didn't want to but she needed release… she wanted to cum so badly. She held out for a minute more, until she finally lost before all but screaming,

"Eat me! Eat my pussy and make me cum! Please Jake!"

After hearing this Jake was more than happy to oblige, thankful that the rooms were insulated for both heat and sound, as he licked deeply into her moist folds before clamping his lips around her clit and sucking hard. Angel squealed and grabbed the back of his head, grinding his face into her juicy cunt. Jake pulled back after a few moments and smiled, slipping his middle finger into her. Angel was still tight; he doubted if he could fit a second finger in to her, and pushed his finger in as far as he could searching for her g-spot. He found it when Angel suddenly shuddered hard, her toes curling violently at the sensation running up her body, and rubbed it hard making her buck against his finger as she came with a loud scream. Jake kissed her, cutting her off and letting her taste her own juices while gently stroking her pussy, bringing her down from her high but beginning her climb to ecstasy again. Moaning, Angel reached down and pulled off Jake's boxers before she stared at him. Saying he was big would be like saying that Ice-types were only slightly effective against Tropius… Jake was huge! 10" of cock stood proud between his legs, arousing Angel even more much to her surprise.

"Seeing the size of this thing… I need it in me NOW!" Angel all but demanded.

"Are you sure Angel? I don't want to hurt you by mistake…" Jake answered nervously.

"Stop being such a pussy! Do it Jake please, I need it," Angel exclaimed, her eyes growing wider and watering slightly as she used the famous 'puppy eyes'.

"Angel, you only had to ask you know," Jake replied, trying not to flinch at her overpowering expression of manipulation.

Jake positioned his cock at her entrance before slowly pushing in; Angel was still incredibly tight, tears welling up in her eyes. Jake tried to stop and pull out, he didn't want to hurt her but before he could pull out fully she wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him in deeper forcefully, causing Angel to cry out in ecstasy. Both teens were sweating heavily now, soaking the bed further then what Angel's arousal had already done. They were thankful they didn't have to pay the cleaning bill when morning came round. Angel panted, her breasts rising and falling as she gazed soulfully to Jake.

"Do it Jake! I want it and there is no one I'd rather be with for this! I love you!"

Jake bent over and started sucking on a nipple in reply, he suckled on the right one while pinching the left between his fingers eliciting a small moan from Angel, which was enough to send him over the edge at long last Jake thrust into her, causing Angel to start screaming in both pleasure and pain. Jake stopped and Angel latched onto him, holding him deep within her. After a minute or two she nodded and Jake started moving his hips, slowly at first but Angel moaned out, "Faster Jake, faster."

Jake nodded, being the giving man he was naturally obliged to be, and the two increased their pace, Angel meeting him on every stroke with her tight cunt pumping up and down his shaft at an ever increasing rate. Angel began moaning loudly as Jake bit down on the nipple he was sucking on. She screamed, not in pain but in orgasmic bliss, her pussy clamping down on Jake's cock, gripping him tightly, urging him to cum. Jake just continued pumping into her and Angel came again, her hands clawing into Jake's shoulders. Jake showed what his abilities were truly meant for, slamming into Angel until she was in a constant state of orgasm, her mouth and eyes open wide in a silent scream of bliss. Angel's pussy was milking Jake for all it was worth and soon Jake could feel pressure building up from deep within.

"Angel, I'm gonna cum."

"Don't you dare pull out Jake!"

"But…" His protest cut short when she gave him the puppy dog eyes again.

"I'm cumming!" Jake released a loud moan as he filled Angel with his seed.

Angel felt Jake's cum splash into her womb and let out a shriek of delight as she very nearly passed out from the exhaustion of being fucked for two hours straight. Jake pulled out of her and cleaned her up, then bent over to kiss her on the cheek, before lying down at her side trying to ignore how soaked the bed was. Angel instinctively cuddled up to him and Jake sighed happily as he held quite possibly the greatest woman in the pokemon world. Angel was his soul mate and nothing made him happier than seeing how peaceful she was at that very moment, her brow clear of a frown and her mouth slightly open as she breathed lightly. Just as Jake himself was starting to fall asleep Angel mumbled in her sleep, "Was it good?"

"Better than anything Angel," Jake answered quietly, brushing a stray strand of hair out of Angel's face.

_At the same time (beginning of last scene)…_

"More Sabre! Ah! More!" Rebekah moaned as Sabre's tongue dove in and out of her.

Her back suddenly arched as she came with a quiet scream. Sabre giggled as she looked over the woman beneath her. Rebekah's face was flushed and some of Sabre's own juices were near her mouth. She had bite marks and hickeys on her neck and collarbone. Her large chest rose and fell rapidly as she tried to catch her breath, multiple marks on them as well. However, seeing her fully naked showed Sabre just how many scars Rebekah had truly gathered. There were scars crossing all over her long legs, faint but still there. The one Sabre liked the most though was a long, thin 'Z'-shaped scar just above her left eyebrow that she got when she fell as a child.

Meanwhile, Rebekah was looking at the blonde-haired woman sitting on top of her. This was the first time that they were doing this and they were nervous as hell but willing to experiment. So far, Sabre's touch would excite her and then she just couldn't get enough. Sometimes she would do some things to Sabre but she was always the submissive one. She really didn't mind. Sabre was able to please her better than anything and everything even though she had experience pleasuring herself.

"You're very loud. Did you know that Beka?" She purred in her ear.

Rebekah blushed and turned her head away in embarrassment. The blonde grabbed her chin and turned her face toward her, gently placing a kiss on the shy-girl's lips. "I love it." Rebekah smiled as she sat up, combing her fingers through her long, tangled hair.

"T-that was great, Sabre," she mumbled, blushing as she climbed off the bed.

"Where are you going?" Sabre asked as the fiery teen wrapped herself in a fluffy night coat, tying the waist cord tightly.

"I-I just need s-something to drink," she stuttered as she headed out of the room and to the cafeteria.

Thankfully, there was no one around and the lights were dimmed, saving her privacy. Rebekah grabbed a small cup and placed it under a vending machine, ordering some hot chocolate with the change she had grabbed from her jeans. She watched as the machine poured it into the cup and then grabbed a can off of a nearby table. She turned it upside down and sprayed out a load of whipped cream on top of her completed drink. "Yum," she smiled before giggling like a little kid before she turned and headed back to her room.

Sabre licked her lips as she eyed the whipped cream can from the doorway, multiple images and ideas running through her mind, all of which involved Rebekah. She grinned deviously as Rebekah sipped her drink cutely, blowing steam from her mouth after each sip, smiling.

"Hey Beka?" she said in a thoughtful tone.

"Yeah, Sabre?" Oh how Sabre loved the way her name flowed off Rebekah's sweet tongue.

"Come back to the bed when you're done, 'kay? And bring the cream can with you."

"Why did you want this?" Rebekah asked as she sat atop the bed again, looking at the can with a (really cute) confused look.

"Oh nothing, just a silly idea," Sakura replied as she inched over to the woman.

She took the can and placed it on the bedside table before turning back to Rebekah. She pulled her into a gentle kiss, deepening it as she moaned. It was odd. The two girls' styles were opposites. Sabre loved it rough while Rebekah liked it a bit gentle when it came to sexual pleasure. This time though, Rebekah just couldn't get enough and she just wanted Sabre to eat her out and fuck her until she couldn't walk. Sabre quickly pulled off the night coat and pulled Rebekah over the bed towards her. Though before Sabre could do it, Rebekah pushed the blonde-haired woman down and straddled her. Sabre gasped as she landed on the bed but started to moan as the quiet girl latched onto the sweet spot at her collarbone. She started moving lower but then Sabre suddenly flipped her over.

"My turn," she panted, latching onto one of her breasts.

Rebekah gasped and arched her back, trying to get more of her breast into Sabre's hot, wet mouth. She let go but quickly latched onto the other one. Rebekah's hands began to wander lower, sliding along the other woman's smooth skin. She brought her right hand down to her own middle as one of her fingers entered Sabre's. The woman gasped, arching her back as she thrust against the teen's small hand. Rebekah panted, getting closer to her own climax but Sabre's hand stopped her.

"Not just yet Rebekah," she panted, her voice slightly hoarse.

She slid down to where Rebekah's hand was still working after she grabbed the whipped cream. She then spread the pokemorph's legs apart as far as they would go, which was pretty far since she was so flexible, and Rebekah squealed at sensation of the cold metal can in Sabre's hand against her leg. Sabre brought the nozzle to Rebekah's now clearly wet pussy and pressed the tip into her, eliciting a pleasured moan. She pressed the top to an angle and Rebekah cried out as the cold topping filled her.

"Ah! S-Sabre!" she cried in shock.

Sabre pulled it away but quickly replaced it with her tongue, eating as much of the cream as she could. She groaned at the taste of it as it mixed with Rebekah's juices, creating a delicious treat for her.

"You should taste this Beka," she chuckled, her voice husky, "You taste delicious." She leaned up and gave Rebekah a deep kiss.

Sabre was right. It was delicious. Of course, she would have liked it better if it were Sabre's taste instead of her own. A wave of courage washed over her and she flipped Sabre over, grabbing the vibrator out from under the pillow at the same time. She turned it on, quickly spread Sabre's legs, and rammed it into her. Sabre cried out in pleasure as her back curved off the bed. The angle the teen had entered her had her hitting that certain spot immediately and it was amazing! Rebekah hooked one of Sabre's legs over her shoulder, opening her up more, while pounding the toy into her.

"Ah! Keep going Rebekah! Harder! Faster!"

Rebekah did as she was told and soon after the blonde woman came with a cry. She pulled it out as she stayed on her knees and licked it sensually, arousing Sabre even more than she was already. Rebekah moaned and placed it underneath herself, lowering her body directly onto it. Rebekah began riding it as Sabre watched, wide-eyed. After several long minutes, Rebekah came as she moaned Sabre's name and the other woman came just at the sight and sound. Both women lay next to each other on the bed, panting and sweaty, as they tried to catch their breath. Sabre rolled over and pulled Rebekah close to her as her eyelids began getting heavy.

"I love you, Rebekah," she mumbled.

"I love you too, Sabre," she mumbled back. She leaned forward and licked a small dot of whipped cream from the corner of Sabre's lips. "Yum," she giggled before going to sleep, Sabre following soon after.

* * *

**Fuck it, I'm stopping here. Official chapter length 19,500 words… *groan***

**Anyways, the votes are in at last and I have concluded that there's to be no crossovers, better luck next time all you other guys.**

**Also, this'll be the only chapter with 2 lemons in it at one time, any others will probably only have 1. The next chapter, when done, will be quite a treat for you guys, and I hope you enjoyed this one despite the horrific wait. Hopefully I'll do better, anyways take care.**

**Kgmck177 – Master of the Omniverse**


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